Pass D6/f7S' 

Rnnk .Pi / K S 



A FEW 



BRIEF MEMORANDA 



OF SOME OF THE 



PUBLIC SEETICES 



EENDEEED BY 



LIEUT.-COLONEL OUTRAM, C.B. 



" The Bayard of India — ' Sans peur el sans reproche ' — Major James 
Outram, of the Bombay Army." 

Speech of Lieut.-Gen. Sir C. J. Napiee, Nov. 5th, 1842. 



LONDON: 

PEINTED (FOE PRIVATE CIRCULATION) BY 

SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, COENHILL 

1853. 




205449 
5 13 




London : 

Printed by Stewaet and Murray, 
Old Bailey. 



MES. JAMES OUTKAM, 

THESE 
OF 

SOME OF THE SERVICES 

RENDERED 
BY HER HUSBAND, 
ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
BY 

THE COMPILER. 



PREFACE. 



Colonel Outram's friends have frequently re- 
quested him to publish a narrative of his eventful 
career in the East. To these requests he has in- 
variably turned a deaf ear ; but, in deference to the 
strongly expressed opinions of those to whose judg- 
ment it was his duty to defer, he at length gave his 
consent to the preparation, for private circulation, of 
a few Memoranda of some of his more important 
services. And he was induced to submit to the 
Compiler of the following pages a mass of docu- 
ments, consisting of copies of the official records of 
his public proceedings during the last thirty years, 
which have, from time to time, been furnished to 
him by the authorities, and of his correspondence 
with eminent Indian functionaries. 



vi PREFACE. 

Beyond giving- his sanction to the general plan 
of this little book, Colonel Outram is answerable 
for none of the statements or opinions it contains. 
The Compiler studiously avoided submitting- it to 
him either in manuscript or proof. And thoug-h 
the proofs of two sheets were placed in his hands 
by a g-entleman to whom they had been submitted, 
the final corrections had been made, ere this cir- 
cumstance became known to the Compiler. 



London, March 1853. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

I. — Services as a Regimental Officer. (1819 — 

1825.) ..... .. .1 

II. — Services amongst the Bheels] of Candeish. 

(1825—1835.) 7 

IIL — Services in the Mahee Kanta. (1835 — 

1838.) . 35 

IV. — Services during the Invasion of Affghanis- 

tan. (1838—1839.) 57 

V. — Services as Political Agent for Lower 

Sind. (1840—1841.) 83 

VI. — Services as Political Agent for the Whole 

of Sind and Beloochistan. (1841—1842.) . 91 

VII. — Services as Commissioner in Sind. (1842 — 

1843.) ........ 113 

VIII. — Services in Nimar and in the Southern 

Mahratta Country. (1844—1845.) . . 134 

IX. — Services as British Resident at the Courts 

of Sattara and Baroda. (1845 — 1851.) . 148 



The following" pages have been in type for many 
weeks. The delay has been caused by the preparation 
of the appendices — certain recent discussions having- 
led the Compiler to believe that it would be his duty 
to enter at some length into the questions of Bombay 
and Baroda corruption. He is advised that this is 
unnecessary. No time, therefore, will be lost in pre- 
paring* the appendices ; when completed copies will 
be forwarded to the recipients of the present (thus par- 
tially incomplete) volume. 

March 8th, 1853. 



MEMORANDA OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES 

OF 

LIEUT.-COLONEL OUTRAM, C.B. 



I W ' . I. ■ 

SERVICES AS A REGIMENTAL OFFICER. 

1819—1825. 

In Aprii 1819, Mr. James Outram was appointed 
to the Military Service of the Hon. East India Com- 
pany, on their Bombay Establishment. 

On his arrival in India, in the following' Aug*ust, he 
was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. And when, 
in 1820, the Twenty-third Reg'iment of Native In- 
fantry was raised, he was entrusted with the Adjutancy 
of the new Corps. 

Soon after their enrolment at Poona, in the winter 
of 1820, the Twenty- third were sent overland to 
Baroda. After spending* a monsoon at that hot and 
sickly station, where a fever, of almost unexampled 
severity, prostrated nine-tenths of their number, they 
were ordered into the Mye Caunta on field service. 
On the satisfactory completion of the operations there 
entrusted to them, they were marched across to 

B 



•2 



Kattywar : and thence, after the performance of 
various harassing* duties, they were, early in 1824, 
despatched to the turbulent Province of Candeish. 

It was Lieutenant Outranks g*ood fortune to be 
placed in temporary command of his Regiment for 
some months during* its service in Kattywar. And, 
while holding' this responsible position, he was, on the 
occasion of the annual review, very highly compli- 
mented by the Reviewing* Officer, on his merits, both 
as an Adjutant and as a Commander. Before leaving* 
Kattywar, the Twenty-third were ag*ain reviewed by 
the Commander-in-Chief, Sir C. Colville, who, in 
glowing* terms, eulogized their hig'h state of efficiency 
and discipline, extolled the merits of their Command- 
ing* Officer, Major Bagmold, and conferred on their 
Adjutant the most gratifying* compliment he had it in 
his power to bestow. The Regiment had been ordered 
to move on Candeish by wing's ; and to the command 
of one of these, Sir Charles specially nominated 
Lieutenant Outram, thoug'h junior by many years 
to several other officers then present with the Corps. 

After a few months' residence in Candeish, his 
medical advisers deeming* a chang*e of climate ne- 
cessary for his health, Lieutenant Outram proceeded 
to Bombay, where an expedition was being* org-anized 
against the Fort of Kittoor, in the Southern Mahratta 
Country. He accompanied the force as a volunteer ; 
and, on its arrival at the scene of operations, sought 
and obtained from the General Commanding, per- 
mission to lead the storming party. But the oppor- 
tunity so earnestly desired, of displaying that 
undaunted courage and military ardour which at a 



3 

later period of his career became proverbial, was 
denied him on this occasion — the garrison having* 
capitulated just as preparations were being- made for 
the assault. 

On the return of the Kittoor Expedition, Lieutenant 
Outram rejoined his regiment. And ere long*, an 
opportunity was afforded him of earning* distinction in 
the field. 

Towards the end of March 1825, an insurrection 
suddenly broke out in the Western Districts of Can- 
deish, which threatened to extend throughout the 
Province. The rebel leader, at the head of 800 
men, attacked and plundered Untapoor, carrying* off 
his spoil to the Hill Fortress of Moolair. He there 
established his Head-Quarters ; and, raising* the seduc- 
tive banner of the Peishwa, he vaunting'ly proclaimed 
his intention to revive the g'lories of the Mahratta 
Confederacy. 

The British Troops at Surat, Jaulnah, Ahmed- 
nug'gur, &c., were ordered to hold themselves in 
readiness for immediate service ; and, in the mean 
time, the Deputy Commissioner (Mr. Graham) was 
instructed to lose no time in procuring* from the local 
authorities such military assistance as eould be spared 
for the defence of Zye Keira, the chief town of the 
Moolair District — the seat of the district Treasury — 
and situated only twelve miles distant from the rebel 
stronghold. 

Two hundred men of the 11th and 23rd Beg-iments 
were accordingly despatched from Mallig*aum, on the 
evening* of the 5th of April, under the command of 
Lieutenant Outram, who, after effecting* a forced 



4 



march of thirty-five miles, reached Zye Keira early 
next morning*. In the course of the day, he received 
information which led him to believe that, thoug-h 
the enemy were more formidable in point of numbers 
than previous accounts represented them to be, the 
works on the further side of their fortress were 
susceptible of escalade. And he, therefore, proposed 
to carry the place by a coup-cle-main — to rout the 
insurgents under the panic of a sudden surprise — and, 
by thus destroying* the prestige they had already 
acquired, to dishearten the allies that were flocking* 
to their standard. This proposition was enthu- 
siastically received by his companions, Ensig*ns Whit- 
more and Paul of the 11th Regiment* but it so far 
exceeded the discretionary powers which their written 
instructions vested either in Graham or Outram, 
that it was a matter of serious deliberation with the 
former whether he was justified in giving* his consent. 
The result of his inquiries, however, satisfied him that 
a rapid and alarming* extension of the insurrection 
could only be prevented by offering* a prompt check 
to the rebels. He accordingly sanctioned the pro- 
posed measures* and, soon after nig'htfall, Outram 
marched fortlvto carry them into execution. 

As he neared the hill on which the fortress was 
situated, he sent Ensig*ns Whitmore and Paul, with 
150 men, to make a false attack in front* while he, 
himself, with the remaining* fifty sepoys of his de- 
tachment, turning* off to the left, proceeded to assail 
the rear. 

The operation was completely successful. Both 
parties effected the ascent before day-break. And 



5 

while the rebels had their attention drawn to their 
front, by the assault of an enemy whose strength 
it was impossible to ascertain in the dark, Outram 
dashed in upon them from behind. The panic-stricken 
garrison fled with scarcely an attempt at resistance. 
And at the head of his reunited detachment, and 
some horsemen whom Mr. Graham had in the mean 
time collected, Outram followed them up so closely 
that they could neither rally /nor discover the weakness 
of their assailants. Their leader was cut down ; many 
of his adherents shared his fate ; and the rest made 
for the neighbouring hills, in a state of complete dis- 
organization. 

As the Infantry had now marched upwards of fifty 
miles, in little more than thirty-six hours, Outram 
found it necessary to halt them soon after dawn. But 
the horsemen continued the pursuit so far as the 
nature of the ground permitted ; scouts were de- 
spatched to ascertain the point of rendezvous selected 
by the scattered foe; and, at night, the chase was 
resumed. The insurgents were a second time sur- 
prised; many were* slain; numbers were taken pri- 
soners; and the rest, throwing down their arms, 
fled to their respective villages. A rebellion which 
had caused much anxiety to the authorities was thus 
crushed, ere the troops intended for its suppression 
had been put in motion. And the plunder of Unta- 
poor was restored to its lawful owners. 

For these services, cordial thanks and commenda- 
tions were bestowed on Lieutenant Outram and his 
gallant companions, as well by the Government, as by 
the Commander-in-Chief, and the Divisional General. 



6 



And these were the last services that Outram was 
called on to render as a Regimental Officer. For the 
Governor of Bombay — the Honourable Mountstuart 
Elphinstone — had in the mean time resolved on in- 
stituting 1 a grand moral experiment which required,, for 
its successful conduct, more than ordinary zeal, energy? 
and tact. And in the young* Adjutant of the Twenty- 
third, he had discerned the man specially qualified to 
o-ive effect to his vieivs. * 

On resigning' his Adjutancy, to enter on his new 
sphere of action, Lieutenant Outram received a 
warmly expressed and publicly recorded eulogy from 
his Commanding Officer, Colonel Desehampes, who 
was pleased to attribute the high estimation in which 
the new regiment was then held at Army Head- 
Quarters, in a great measure to the merits and exer- 
tions of its Adjutant. 



7 



II. 

SERVICES AMONGST THE BHEELS OF CANDEISH. 

1825—1835. 

Of the various provinces which, on the subjugation 
of the Peishwa, were annexed to the Anglo-Indian 
Empire, one of the most important, but decidedly the 
least promising*, was Candeish. Once populous and 
fertile, a Mahrattas, Arabs, Bheels, and Pindarries, had 
combined to desolate it. And it came into our hands 
a desert — its towns in ruins, its villages destroyed, its 
soil uncultivated, its roads broken up, and myriads of 
its population swept off by famines, plagues, and battles."* 
Nor, for long, did it seem that the British supremacy 
was destined to bring repose to this stricken land. 

The Pindarries were no more * the power of the 
Mahrattas had been dissolved * the marauding* Arabs 
had been driven out ; and the mild sway of a paternal 
Government had taken the place of misrule, and ra- 
pacious tyranny. But the inhabitants of Candeish 
found not peace. Their plains were still ravaged by 
the wild Bheels who occupied the neighbouring moun- 
tains. And in vain did they invoke the protection of 

* History of the British Conquests in India, vol. ii. p. 79. 
By Horace St. John, Esq. Colburn and Co., 1852. 



their new masters against these ruthless Caterans, 
who, secure in their rocky defiles and dense pestilential 
jungles, continued^ for seven long* years, to baffle the 
political sagacity of the British Government, and to 
deride its military resources.* 

From 1818 till 1825, Candeish stood to Western 
India in the relation which Ireland still hears to Britain. 
It was u the difficulty" of the Government. It was 
a difficulty which all regarded as insuperable, till the 
genius of Elphinstone discovered its solution . And it 
was one which even an Elphinstone might have failed 
to solve, had not an Outram and an Ovans been at 
hand, to give effect to his conceptions, under the 
able surveillance of Colonel Robertson, the Com- 
missioner for Candeish. 

To appreciate these conceptions, and the merits 
of the officers by whom they were realized, it is 

* u Candeish is nearly surrounded by broad chains of mountains, 
whose sides are clothed in noxious vegetation, where, for many 
months of the year, none but the hardy denizen of the hill can 
exist. . . . The tabular trap hills of the Saat-pooras, which form 
the northern boundary of the province, are separated from each 
other by ravines of vast magnitude, and are covered with splendid 
forests, which afford amidst the most romantic scenery, unbounded 
shelter to the outlaw. On the west the great Sukhein range rises 
steep and stony ; these Ghauts, however, are not broken but sus- 
tain tangled masses of Bamboo, which is found nowhere else in 
greater luxuriance or more difficult of access, whilst the continuous 
ranges of Chandore, Saatmulla, and Ajunta, bound the province 
to the South, and the thick Bauble jungle which shrouds their 
thousand dark dells, presents equal difficulties to the pursuit of the 
offender, as do the low sterile hillocks which, to the eastward, 
separate Khandesh from the rich plains of Berar." — Historical 
Sketch of the Bheel Tribes, by Capt. Graham. 



9 



necessary that we should call to mind the character 
and antecedents of the people that were taken in 
hand* 

The Bheels a had from the most remote ages been 
recognized as a distinct race, insulated in their abodes, 
and separated by their habits and usages from the other 
tribes of India/'* They regarded robbery as a sacred 
institution, and eng-aged in it with the spirit of men 
who ply their calling under divine sanction. Taught 
to divide their spiritual allegiance between the minor 
Infernal Deities, they were accustomed to propitiate 
these Evil Powers with sanguinary sacrifices. In 
addition to other debasing vices they were greatly 
addicted to drunkenness ; u and all their evil pro- 
pensities," we are told, cc burst into a flaming fire 
when roused by the effects of ardent spirits." By 
their neighbours they were looked on with horror, as 
social and religious outcasts, whom it was pollution 
to associate with, and righteousness to slay ; and 
as every man's hand was lifted against them, so the 
measure of wrath was fully returned by the tribe. 

Like most savages they were suspicious — had an 
instinctive sense of danger — were full of cunning and 
evasion — and rarely attacked the strong while victims 
were to be found amongst the weak and unprotected. 
But they were no cowards. When peril presented 
itself, they met it with manly fortitude, and heroic 
devotion ) and, as Sir John Malcolm has recorded, " to 
kill another when the Turvee (Chief) desired, or to 
suffer death themselves, appeared to them equally a 
matter of indifference." 



* Sir John Malcolm. 



10 



In peaceful times, and under the powerful rule of 
the Mahomedan Government, certain of these wild 
savages had become so far civilized as to settle in the 
plains. And while their brethren in the hills (to use 
the words of Sir John Malcolm) a passed their time 
between crime and debauchery/' these men had been 
induced to take service as village watchmen, and, 
more rarely, to engage in agriculture. But, for many 
years antecedent to the British occupation of Can- 
deish, the " village" and u cultivating" Bheels, had 
returned to their predatory pursuits. 

This retrogression, which had proceeded almost 
pari passu with the decadence of the Mahomedan 
sway, was complete in 1803. In that year, the 
scourg'e of war was succeeded by a most unusual and 
withering famine, which extended from the Vindhya 
Hills to the City of Hydrabad. Candeish became 
for a time deserted ; many of its cultivators fled to 
Berar and Guzerat; the few remaining Bheels aban- 
doned the plains, and returned not again. u And 
now/ ? to quote the words of Major Douglas Gra- 
ham :— 

u Commenced the Bundumul — that period of utter 
anarchy and confusion which so long reigned through- 
out this unhappy land. Organized gangs (of Bheels) 
started up in every direction; and the mountain- 
ridges were quickly studded with Hutties, from the 
tiny hamlet of the freebooter, to the grand encamp- 
ments of the powerful Naicks, who, assuming the 
state of petty princes, despatched their armies of a 
thousand men to sack and lay waste the surrounding 
countrv- 



11 



(c On the occupation of the Province of Candeish 
by the British Government in 1818 ; anarchy and 
lawless oppression had reached a fearful height^ and 
murder and rapine stalked openly and unrestrainedly 
through the land. Fifty notorious leaders infested 
this once flourishing* 6 Garden of the West;' and 
their every command was implicitly obeyed by 
upwards of 5 ; 000 ruthless followers^ whose sole oc- 
cupation was pillage and robbery, whose delight 
alone consisted in the murderous forav, and whose 
subsistence depended entirely on the fruits of their un- 
lawful spoil. Smarting under the repeatedly broken 
pledges of the former Native Government, and ren- 
dered savage from the wholesale slaughter of their 
families and relations, the Bheels were more than 
usually suspicious of a new Government of foreigners, 
and less than ever inclined to submit to the bonds 
of order and restraint. 

u From Kokurmunda to Booranpoor, the Avhole 
range of the Sathpoora mountains teemed with the 
disaffected. The Sathmalla and Ajunta Bheels, under 
thirty-two leaders, were in arms in numerous parties, 
carrying fire and sword over the Southern parts of 
the Province \ and the petty Rajahs of Peint and 
Abhena having united with the powerful Naick, 
Govinda, the work of desolation was urg*ed with a 
bloody hand through the entire range of the Western 
Ghauts. The roads were impassable \ villages in 
every direction were plundered 5 and murders daily 
committed. Cattle and hostages were driven off from 
the very centre of the Province \ and these ravages 



12 



rose to such a height that the Ryots refused to 
receive Tuccavee, whilst their property was thus 
insecure.* 

u The first plan adopted hy Colonel Briggs, on the 
occupation of Oandeish by the British Government, 
was to stop the supplies of food, which were chiefly 
drawn from the plains — to cut off any parties of 
Bheels that attempted to issue for plunder — and 
to make vigorous attacks on the points within the 
hills to which the Chiefs had retired. 

" During* tfie second year of British Administra- 
tion, many of the Chiefs, by the prompt decision and 
praiseworthy efforts of the British Troops, were either 
seized or killed in battle \ but these chiefs were, in 
most cases, succeeded by others equally powerful and 
ferocious with themselves \ and beyond the immediate 
influence of the British Troops there was little pro- 
tection for life and property in Candeish. Proclama- 
tions were in vain issued that former crimes would 
be forgotten, and that in future those Bheels who 
returned to the plains should be fed at the expense of 
the village. The amnesty was unheeded and rejected, 
and not one of the tribe repaired to take advantage of 
the liberal offer. 

a No regular Police existed at this time. The 
Bheels, who formerly had been the village watchmen, 
were in arms against the State. And reports daily 
arrived of robberies, murders, and house-breakings, — 



* " Ryot " means " cultivator." " Tuccavee," is the advance 
made by Government to enable the cultivators to purchase seed, 
prepare the soil, &c< 



13 

upwards of one hundred complaints of this nature 
being- made, during* the course of one month, from the 
singie district of JNFundoobar. An Irregular Corps of 
Turree Bheels was at length attempted, on the prin- 
ciple of confirming* hereditary Naicks as the superiors 
of the legion ; but the experiment entirely failed, the 
men being* constantly in a state of intoxication. And 
their grovelling 1 habits proving* incapable of restraint 
by native officers, who were equally licentious with 
themselves, this body was ultimately disbanded as 
totally useless. 

u Among*st the many plans which w^ere agitated to 
restore peace to the Province, the political Agent pro- 
posed to pension every marauding* Bheel in Candeish 
on a monthly allowance of two rupees, together with a 
certain quantity of grain. Military operations were, 
however, finally resorted to ; and parties of Sebun- 
dies* and regular troops were despatched to protect 
the passes. But they were shortly obliged to quit, 
leaving* two-thirds of their number victims to the 
malaria \ and the charg*e of these outlets were ag*ain^ 
handed over to the loose control of the hereditar} r 
Naicks on double their former allowances ; but with 
no happier effect than before. 

cc During* the four succeeding* years, the same suc- 
cessive arrangements were pursued, with equally un- 
successful results. Conciliatory measures were first 
adopted; settlements of the most liberal nature were 
entered into with many. And, these entirely failing, 
recourse was had to arms, which only for a time 
and in the immediate vicinity of the force, had the 

* " Sebundies" are irregular foot. 



14 



temporary effect of apparently subduing' these untame- 
able spirits." * 

Avoiding, as far as possible, any general engage- 
ment with the troops sent to attack them, the 
Bheels waited till the invaders, baffled in their 
object, commenced their homeward march ; and 
then, hanging* on their flanks and rear, cut off their 
stragglers, harassed and often plundered their bag- 
gage trains. To the troops employed against them, 
the service was one of fatigaie, hardship, and peril. 
Independent of the casualties of warfare, vast numbers 
annually fell victims to the deadly miasms of the 
jungle; and of those who escaped with their lives, 
more than a third had their constitutions irreparably 
injured. We learn from Captain Graham that every 
Regiment of the Line, at the close of its usual tour 
of three years in the Bheel districts, was compelled 
"to discharge to their homes upwards of a hundred 
men as unfit (from the effects of climate) for further 
(active) service ; whilst a like number, entirely dis- 
abled, swelled the list of Government pensioners." 

Such a state of matters as has just been sketched 
was felt to be intolerable. But how was it to be 
remedied ? 

Mr. Elphinstone's predecessor in the Government of 
Bombay had looked to the utter extermination of the 
Bheels as the only measure by which peace could be 
re-established in Candeish-t But, so far as past ex- 

* "A Brief Historical Sketch of the Bheel Tribes inhabiting* 
Candeish," prepared by Capt D. C. Graham, Sept. 1843, and 
printed by order of the Hon. Court of Directors, pp. 4-5. 

f Vide Mr. Giberne's Report on Bheel Civilization, subsequently 
quoted. # 



15 



perience enabled men to judge, this gubernatorial 
dictum must have seemed to imply little more, than 
that one impossibility could only be effected through 
the performance of another. 

Very different from those of his predecessor, were 
the views entertained by Mr. Elphinstone, who recog- 
nized in the wild and degraded Bheel a brother man, in 
whom dwelt affections that might be won, and were 
worth the winning — sympathies through the skilful 
management of which, he might be guided within the 
pale of civilized life — and faculties that would repay 
culture. To elevate the proscribed race in the scale of 
moral being appeared to him a feat of easier accom- 
plishment, and far more glorious than their extirpation. 
And he resolved that it should be done. Nor was it 
enough that the Bheels should be gained over from their 
habits of crime, debauchery, and brigandage — taught 
the arts of civilization — and made to appreciate the 
blessings which civilization bestows. He was deter- 
mined to render them cc the protectors of the peace they 
had so long disturbed" ! 

For the achievement of these noble objects, he de- 
vised two schemes. One was the establishment of 
Agricultural Colonies of Bheels ; the other, the organ- 
ization of a Regiment of Bheel Soldiers to be armed 
and disciplined like the Battalions of the Line, and 
commanded by a British officer. To most men the 
proposed plan appeared an inversion of the natural order 
of things — to imply the pre-existence of that very re- 
form it was designed to effect; but Mr. Elphinstone 
knew better. The a Colony" experiment he confided 
to Captain (now Colonel) Ovans ; the organization 







10 

of the u Bheel Corps' 7 was assigned to Lieutenant 
Outram. Both schemes were sneered at by the 
u practical " men of the day as visionary and absurd ; 
both were, however, gloriously successful ; and it 
was hardly necessary for Sir John Malcolm to 
record that the success of both u depended on the 
selection of the officers to whom the execution was 
confided." * 

The nature, extent, and value of Colonel Ovans' 
philanthropic services — the difficulties he surmounted 
—the consummate skill and knowledge of human 
nature he displayed — and the peaceful triumphs he 
achieved, are well known to the Indian authorities, 
and to all who have carefully studied the history of 
Modern India. And they are deeply engraved on the 
memories of those reclaimed savages amongst whom 
he toiled. But they are not understood as they oug-ht 
to be, by the g-eneral public. And to sketch them is a 
pleasure which the compiler of these c< Memoranda" 
promises to himself at an early date, should he not be 
anticipated by some one better qualified for the task. 
But, in the mean time, he has to deal, exclusively, with 
the services of Lieut. Outram. 

The organization of a Bheel Corps, under a European 
officer, had been frequently proposed by Mr. Elphin- 

* The anticipations of failure so generally and so confidently 
expressed, in reference to Mr. Elphinstone's schemes, were the 
less justifiable, from the fact, that the superiority of a conciliatory 
over a coercive policy had been already demonstrated by Mr. 
Willoughby, in respect of the wild tribes inhabiting* the 
Rajpeempla hills ; whom he had pacified by gentleness, and 
equitable measures, without firing a musket, or drawing* a sabre. 



17 



stone. But so great was the disfavour with which the 
scheme was received* so many were the objections 
started to it ) and so full of hazard to the officer who 
should be entrusted with its accomplishment was it on 
all hands allowed to be, that, up to the date of the 
Moolair rebellion, it was not enforced. On the occur- 
rence of that insurrection, however, Mr. Elphinstone 
resolved that, if he could find an officer to take it in 
hand, his plan should be no longer delayed. 

Outranks friends strongly remonstrated with him 
against sacrificing his professional position and pro- 
spects, and, almost to a certainty, his life, by entering on 
so insane a project. But the very dangers with which 
the proffered appointment was beset tended to en- 
hance its value in his eyes. And, requesting Colonel 
Robertson to communicate to Mr. Elphinstone his 
glad acceptance of the hazardous commission, he 
made haste to enter on its exciting duties. 

Proceeding to the Head Quarters of his Regiment, 
he obtained permission to lead a detachment against 
the Bheels of the Sathmalla Hills, who had, for some 
months, been playing at bo-peep with his commanding 
officer. He attacked and routed them with consider- 
able slaughter ; and followed them up, from fastness to 
fastness, till all had submitted — services for which he 
received high commendation from the Government, and 
the Commander-in-Chief. 

Having thus satisfied the Bheels that their jungles, 
and rocky defiles, were not impregnable, he sent back 
his detachment, and throwing himself amongst his 
recent foes, unarmed and unattended, and therefore 
completely at their mercy, he claimed and received a 

c 



18 



reciprocity of the confidence thus reposed in them. 
He accepted their hospitality, which he repaid with 
feasts and entertainments. He listened with profound 
attention to their wild tales and mythological legends ; 
taught them many simple but useful mechanical devices ; 
dressed their wounds ; prescribed for their ailments ; 
joined in their pastimes \ and, accompanying* them in 
pursuit of the tig'ers, and other large game, with 
which their mountains abounded, won their admiration 
by showing* in the chase, as he had previously displayed 
in battle, his superiority in those very qualities which 
they valued most highly in themselves.* 

After a while, he persuaded some high-caste Native 
non-commissioned officers and privates of his own re- 
giment, to co-operate with him in his undertaking. 
And such was the devotion of these noble soldiers to 
their late Adjutant that, g-rievously as it shocked their 
prejudices, they associated on terms of equality with 
the abhorred, and hitherto contumeliously treated 
Bheels, joined in their rude sports, and accompanied 
them in their hunting expeditions. 

Many English gentlemen afterwards stepped for- 
ward to aid him in a similar manner. When- 
ever, in the course of his migrations round the pro- 
vince, his rough levies came in contact with Native 
Begiments of the Line, the European officers were 
readily induced to give them a warm and cordial 
reception, and to treat them with the respect shown, 
under ordinary circumstances, only to high-caste 
Hindoos. And, to the honour of the Bombay Army 

* Vide Mr. Giberne's, Major Douglas Graham's, and other 
official reports on Bheel Rcfm-m 



19 



be it said, that the conduct of the officers was imitated 
by the men, who, not satisfied with displaying* mere 
negative civility, presented their a out-caste" visitors 
with betel-nut and sweetmeats, and g*ave entertain- 
ments in their honour. The violence they thus 
rendered to their own feelings from affection for their 
officers, can be appreciated by those who understand 
the Hindoo system — and by them only.* 

Persevering* in the course which he had originally 
sketched out. Lieutenant Outram contrived to en- 
throne himself in the affections of his uncouth asso- 
ciates ; to establish over their minds a moral as- 
cendancy which was a source of profound astonishment 
to all who witnessed it ; to inspire them with sen- 
timents of self-respect; and to imbue them with an 
earnest desire to become participators in the civilization 
with which, from time to time, they were confronted. 

In less than two years from the date of its adoption, 
the philanthropic and farsigiited polic}^ of Mr. 
Elphinstone had been completely vindicated. The 
Bheel recruits had ceased to u pass their time between 
crime and debauchery." Sober, gentle, obliging*, and 

* Conspicuous amongst the regiments who thus co-operated with 
Government in the elevation of the Bheels, and the first to do 
so, was Outram' s own corps. Captain Graham thus writes : — " The 
reception of these wild recruits by the 23rd Regt. Bombay Native 
Infantry, in the camp at Malligaum, was greatly conducive to the 
good cause. Men of the highest caste behaved in a manner most 
nattering to the feelings of the mountaineers, visiting and present- 
ing them with betel-nut, to the no small amazement of the guests, 
and to the gratification of Government, who complimented the 
regiment on their conduct." The 23rd was composed exclusively 
of High-Caste Hindostannees. 



20 



well-behaved, they had Avon the esteem of every 
English gentleman who had seen them; and they 
had shed their blood freely in the cause of order, and 
in conflict with insurgent bandits of their own tribe I 

But though these gratifying results were obtained 
with a celerity that excited marvel, their accomplish- 
ment had been no easy matter. Numerous were 
the discouragements that beset Outranks path ; often 
did his schemes seem on the eve of frustration ; many 
times was his life in peril. 

u Inveterate habits were not to be changed in a day \ 
and, in addition to the natural repugnance to restraint 
and subjection to law, strange rumours and reports 
were afloat throughout the Province, regarding the 
intentions of Government in thus forming the Bheels 
into a Corps. They were told by the evil-disposed 
that the object was to link them in a line, like galley- 
slaves, and then to extirpate their race ; that their 
blood was in high demand as a medicine in the 
country of their masters; that assemblage of the 
Bheels in the Corps would be followed by massacre as 
of yore, &c. &c. &c. ?? * 

They were reminded that, at the very place where 
their head-quarters were fixed, there had been a most 
treacherous and cruel slaughter of their tribe under a 
former Government. And, pondering on these things, 
they could not but deem it strange that an English 
officer should leave the comforts of a settled home, 
and the society of his countrymen, to rove through 
pestilential jungles and lead a life of hardship and 
fatigue, from no more credible motive than love for 

* Mr. Giberne's Report on Bheel Civilization. 



21 



loathed and despised outcasts, whose kinsmen he had 
slain in battle. It was not in human nature — still 
less in the nature of suspicious savages against whom, 
for generations, every hand had been raised — to resist 
altogether the influences thus brought to bear on their 
minds, or to maintain undeviating fidelity to the man 
who, they were told, beguiled their affections only to 
secure their destruction. 

It is not within the scope of these a Memoranda " to 
narrate the progress of the formation of the Bheel 
Corps, or to recite the numerous startling and ro- 
mantic incidents which marked the career of its young 
Commandant, and discovered in him a presence of 
mind that never faltered, and a promptitude of action 
equal to all emergencies. Such details must be 
deferred to a future and more fitting- occasion. But 
it will not be out of place, and may not be altogether 
uninteresting to the readers of this volume, if I 
briefly notice a few leading' passages in the history of 
the Corps, and some of its more remarkable services. 

In March 1826 — that is, in less than eleven months 
after Outram commenced the a conciliation" of his 
Bheels, by attacking them in their haunts, and follow- 
ing them up to their fastnesses — Mr. Bax, Colonel 
Robertson's successor in the Chief Magistracy of Can- 
deish, reported to Government that the recruits 
amounted to 255 in number • that a rapid progress 
had been made in disciplining them j w that desertions 
were becoming u extremely rare f and a that no com- 
plaints whatever had been preferred against any in- 
dividual of the Corps, by the townspeople, since their 
arrival" at Malligaum. 



22 



In the following* July, the same gentleman inti- 
mated that he should be a wanting* in justice to 
Lieutenant Outrain, and remiss in the performance of 
a gratifying* duty, if he neglected to record the very 
great merit attaching to him in bringing* the Corps to 
its present state." 

u This/ 7 he added, a has been principally effected by 
g-reat personal kindness, combined with decision on all 
proper occasions, whereby the Bheels (and I speak 
from personal observation) have learned to consider 
their Commanding Officer as the best guardian of 
their individual welfare." 

In December of the same year, that is, within 
twenty months from the date on which he undertook 
its organization, Lieutenant Outram reported the Corps 
as fit to be entrusted, to a certain extent, with the 
maintenance of order in the Province. And, in 
handing up his report, Mr. Bax observed as follows :— 

66 I have great satisfaction in adding* my testimony 
to the efficient and orderly state of the Bheel Corps ; 
and in congratulating the Hon. the Governor in Coun- 
cil on the complete success of a system which, however 
difficult in operation originally, and doubtful in result, 
has been achieved by the indefatigable exertion and 
excellent management of Lieutenant Outram, assisted 
by a few meritorious Native officers, and sepoys of the 
Line. 

" As to the progress of the Corps in military exer- 
cises, ... I have the authority of Captain Ovans, who 
was also present at their parades, for stating that, in 
this respect, they were remarkably steady and accurate. 
But although this circumstance is, no doubt, a source 



23 



of much gratification to Lieut. Outram, the Hon. the 
Governor in Council will probably derive greater satis- 
faction from reflecting' on the alteration which this 
submission to a mild system of military discipline is 
calculated to produce on the habits and feelings of the 
men of the Corps,, and the advantage to which their 
reformation may be progressively turned, by creating 
an extended interest on the part of the Bheels and 
their connections, in supporting peace and good order 
throughout the Province." 

And in the following month, the same functionary, 
after alluding to a the eminent success that had 
attended the plan under the able management of 
Lieutenant Outram," announced that the Corps was 
a already becoming an efficient arm of Police, and 
highly useful in presenting an established point of 
union and confidence for the unsettled and scattered 
Bheels of the Province." 

On the 22nd April 1827, u the first opportunity 
was offered to these reformed Bheels of shedding their 
blood for their new masters ; and they freely risked it, 
and fought boldly, though opposed to their own caste, 
and probably relations." And in reporting this inter- 
esting action, in which u a small detachment of Bheel 
recruits" had routed with loss u a considerable g'ang of 
Bheels," Captain Hodges, then officiating as Chief 
Magistrate, expressed his conviction that while Go- 
vernment would derive much gratification from a the 
gallant and admirable conduct of the young Bheel 
recruits, . . . the high spirit and exertions of 
Lieutenant Outram himself, to whose example the 
meritorious conduct of his small detachment may be 



24 



fairly attributed, would be no less appreciated/* Nor 
was he mistaken. Lieutenant Outram and his gallant 
band received the most gratifying 1 and cordially ex- 
pressed commendations of Government. 

In the following* September, on the eve of Mr. 
Elphinstone's departure from India, Mr. Giberne, Mr. 
Bax's successor as Chief Magistrate in Candeish, 
deemed it his duty to furnish to the benevolent and 
venerated author of " Bheel Civilization," a special re- 
port, on the subject of the new Corps. And as a 
proof of its success, he mentioned that 200 regulars 
were about to be relieved by Bheel soldiers — C( men 
who once carried dread and terror in their very name 
throughout the country were now to become its de- 
fenders and supporters." 

The Bheel Corps had, for wise and obvious reasons, 
been placed by Mr. Elphinstone under the exclusive 
control of the Civil authorities. But the latter, diffi- 
dent of their own judgment in such matters, requested 
the General, commanding the Division, to have the 
military efficiency of the Regiment (now 600 strong) 
fairly tested, and fully reported on. Sir Lionel Smith 
accordingly deputed Colonel Campbell, the Brigadier 
commanding in Candeish, to review the Corps. 

He did so on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd of September 
1827 5 and reported that their performances were 
a such as would claim a favourable comparison with 
many of the best Native Regiments of the Line." 
That his eulogium was not unmerited will be readily 
granted by any one who may take the trouble to refer 
to Colonel Campbell's report contained in Appendix 1. 

On the receipt of that Report, Sir John Malcolm, 



25 



who had succeeded Mr. Elphinstorie in the Govern- 
ment of Bombay, issued a General Order expressive 
of the great satisfaction he derived from the success 
of " an experiment instituted with the view of re- 
claiming* the Bheels from their wild and hitherto 
intractable habits." cc The Governor in Council/' 
the Grder proceeded to state : — - 

u Has marked with peculiar interest the progress 
of this Corps to its present state of efficiency \ for the 
prejudices, mistrust, and uncivilized habits of the 
Bheels, opposed no ordinary obstacle to its formation 
and organization, especially in the earliest stag*e of 
recruiting. But the able manner in which these 
obstacles have been surmounted by Lieutenant Outram, 
who raised and commands the Corps, has amply 
justified the confidence reposed in him by the Go- 
vernor in Council, in selecting him to undertake this 
task, which could only have been brought to its 
present successful result by a peculiar combination of 
firmness and kindness of temper, and perseverance on 
the part of the officer to whom so important and 
delicate a charge was assigned. 

cc The valuable testimony contained in Colonel 
Campbell's report, with regard to the discipline, 
interior arrangements, and general efficiency of the 
Bheel Corps, affords the Governor in Council the 
highest satisfaction ; and he cannot give a fuller 
proof of the confidence he reposes in this sing*ularly- 
formed Corps, than in now authorizing its details to 
be employed in relieving the regular troops from some 
of the numerous and important outposts throughout 
Candeish, in such manner and to such extent as may 



26 



be considered expedient by the local authority of the 
district." 

But, prior to the promulgation of this order, the 
Candeish authorities had, on their own responsibility, 
given effect to the measures which it sanctioned. 
Writing- on the 18th January 1828, Mr. Griberne 
reported that, a immediately after the Review, the 
Corps broke up into detachments, and marched to 
relieve many of the posts occupied by the regulars." 
a Their extreme readiness" (he added) u and good-will 
to proceed upon this duty was truly gratifying • 360 
are now on detachment and escort duty. Many of 
the unhealthy posts have been taken by them, thus 
rendering the force at the head-quarters of the dis- 
trict much more efficient. . . . The suspicion of 
what was to be their destiny, which, until lately, 
appeared to hang like a cloud on many a willing 
mind, has passed away, on their now finding them- 
selves employed in a trustworthy and honourable 
duty. The most pleasing accounts have been re- 
ceived from the outposts ; Bheels, who not long ago 
shunned and feared the idea of enlisting*, are now 
most ready and anxious to come forward. . . . 
The deserving merits of Lieutenant Outram," &c. &c. 

And on the 1st of January 1829, the same func- 
tionary reported of the Corps that : — 

" Its services have, during the past year, been 
actively and continually employed either in pursuing 
these foreign marauders, or escorting prisoners, and 
on outpost duty in many of the wildest of our borders, 
opposing a front for the purpose of checking foreign 
aggressions. They have invariably shown a willing- 



27 



ness and readiness to act when called upon — ever on 
the alert — and anxious to obey the commands of 
their officers. In introducing* the discipline of a 
regular Corps, a remedy has been at once applied 
to the root of all their evil, wild, and lawless habits, 
by which the latter have been completely arrested. 
Intoxication — a state they envied — has now, I may 
state, been thoroughly overcome; not an instance 
has occurred for a length of time. Not even the 
most trifling' complaint against any one member of the 
Corps has been made to me during- the past year. 
Government has thus obtained the services and labours 
of a body of men who had troubled the repose of the 
former as well as of the present administration. And 
to such lengths were their excesses carried, that the 
former Government looked alone to their extermina- 
tion for repose, whereas the present, by their refor- 
mation, have added a strength to their executive 
power which few could have anticipated. Lieutenant 
Outram is respected, admired, and loved b}^ the 
Bheels under him ; at any future time, should a breach 
of the peace be attempted by the turbulent, I am 
satisfied that the services of this officer and his Corps 
will be of the greatest benefit." 

Nor were the anticipations of this warm friend and 
energetic promoter of Bheel reform destined to remain 
long unfulfilled. For, early in 1830, the Bheel 
Corps had an opportunity of displaying' its soldierly 
qualities in the field ; and it surpassed the expectations 
of even its most ardent friends. 

a The Daung" is the name given to a strong, 
mountainous, and jungly country, dividing Candeish 



28 



from the Surat districts, and inhabited by a wild and, 
up to the date just specified, unsubdued race of Bheels, 
who preyed on the neighbouring* British territory. 
Detachments of our Troops had, for } r ears, been main- 
tained on the frontier of the Daung ;* but no effort 
had been made to conquer the tribes that occupied it ; 
and any attempt to penetrate to their fastnesses had 
been avoided by Government, on account of the 
uncertain nature of the enterprise, and the proverbial 
unhealthiness of the country. 

Lieutenant Outram, pledging* the professional 
reputation he had already earned, and risking* 
his future prospects on the success of his scheme, 
obtained permission to lead a force into the Dating. 
The expedition consisted of the Bheel Corps, detach- 
ments from four Native Regiments of the Line, 
a portion of the Poona Horse, and other Native 
auxiliaries. Within one month, all the Rajahs of 
the Daung* (seven in number) were captured ; their 
followers subdued ; their whole country explored. 
And, in the achievement of these triumphs, the 
Bheel Corps took no slight or undistinguished part. 

Sir John Malcolm was pleased publicly to record 
his thanks to Lieutenant Outram a for the zeal, 
activity, and judgment he had displayed on this 
occasion, to which is to be attributed the fortunate 
conclusion of the harassing service he has had to 
encounter/' In a subsequent General Order, alluding 
to u the operations of Lieutenant Outram amid the 
wilds of Candeish," he observed that that officer u had 

* On the Surat frontier, below the Ghauts \ on the Candeish fron- 
tier above them. 



29 



had to encounter many difficulties which his local in- 
fluence and personal character could alone have over- 
come;" and he directed the attention of the Army to 
him and his friend Captain Mackintosh (of the Ahmed- 
nug*g*er Local Corps) as cc examples of what may be 
effected by officers who add to knowledge of their duty 
as soldiers, acquaintance with the habits, prejudices, 
and languages of the natives \ and who, by concilia- 
tory conduct to all ranks, secure their confidence, and 
are thus enabled to effect objects which, by military 
force alone, they could never accomplish."* 

The Bheel Corps continued steadily to increase in 
efficiency and reputation. And on the 1st of January 
1831, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Giberne's successor in the Civil 
control of Candeish, reported that it had a within 
itself such a number of influential persons connected, 
or intimately acquainted with, every Chief, or Tribe 
of any importance in Candeish, that (provided a 
Bheel culprit remains in the Province) his name and 

* The thanks of Government were communicated to " the officers 
and troops serving under Lieut. Outram " in the Daung expedition. 
There were thirteen officers ; their names I have, unfortunately, 
been unable to obtain. But the nature of the country in which 
they operated may be surmised, when it is mentioned that everyone 
was seized with jungle fever. Three or four died ; and the rest 
were obliged to fly from Candeish, — some to England, some to 
the Cape, some to the Neilgherries. Outram alone, of all the Euro- 
peans, escaped ; and it may be of use to some of the readers of this 
volume, to mention that his immunity on this, as on other occasions 
when he alone, of his party, resisted the malaria, seems attributable 
to his having made a point of covering his head and face with fine 
gauze, whenever he slept in jungly countries. His companions 
in the Daung could not bear the irksomeness of the " fever guard," 
and they had to put up with a grievous alternative. 



t 

30 



village only being made known to the Commandant of 
the Corps, his apprehension follows, almost to a cer- 
tainty." 

During* the hot weather of 1831, u most alarming* 
atrocities" were committed by the Turree Bheels and 
Pardies in the north-eastern districts of Candeish, 
instigated by bandit insurgents from the territories of 
Holcar and Scindia. Mr. Boyd accordingly re- 
quested Lieutenant Outram "to exert his endeavours 
to suppress the gangs f and thus did he report to 
Government the manner in which the Bheel Com- 
mandant had acquitted himself of the task : — 

u Lieutenant Outram proceeded with a small de- 
tachment of the Bheel Corps, only twenty-five in 
number, and with their sole assistance (together with 
the few district Police and Horse), in the course of one 
month, ascertained, apprehended, and guarded those 
concerned to the number of four hundred and sixty 
nine generally desperate characters — Turree Bheels 
and Pardies ; selected one hundred and, fifty- eight 
of the most guilty for punishment, and committed 
them for trial, for thirty gang robberies, with such 
full and clear evidence, that all but eight were con- 
victed and sentenced." 

It is probably no exaggeration to say that these 
feats have been rarely paralleled • and it would seem 
that they were the means of averting the necessity of 
extensive military operations. For, in another com- 
munication to Government, the Chief Magistrate, after 
alluding to "the complete and satisfactory success of 
Lieutenant Outranks measures," — u the judgment with 
which they were taken," — and u the singular prompti- 



31 



tude and decision with which they were executed,"— 
proceeded to express his opinion that : — 

a If the numerous gangs, now apprehended and dis- 
persed^ had succeeded in baffling- Lieutenant Outranks 
exertions, they would no doubt have collected in the 
Yindhya Mountains, and have been certainly joined 
by more discontented persons from the Dhaung*, Nimar, 
&c. than, even with considerable military assistance, 
in such a country, we would have found it easy to 
subdue/'* 

As the pacification of Candeish advanced, fewer 
opportunities of distinguishing' themselves were 
afforded to the Bheel Corps. And the last occasion 
of displaying* their qualities as soldiers occurred in 
May 1833, when the Bheels of the Vindhya range 
broke out into insurrection, and commenced depre- 
dations, of a formidable character, on both sides of 

* The compiler has taken the liberty of altering' the name of 
the mountains alluded to in this and one or two of the following- 
despatches from Sathpoora to Vindhya, at the suggestion of an 
eminent oriental scholar and geographer, to whom he is indebted 
for the following note : — " The three great ranges of hills, sepa- 
rating Malwa from the Deccan, are collectively called, in the 
Puranas, Vindhya. But the term is specifically applied to the 
greatest of the ranges — that which separates the rivers Taptee and 
Nerbudda — Candeish (which means a clift, or hollow, or great 
valley), lying south of the Vindhya range and the Nerbudda, and 
being bounded on the south by the Ajunta range. The range of 
the right bank, and therefore to the north of the Nerbudda, is not 
the Vindhya proper, and, in fact, is nothing more than the flank of 
the table-land of Malwa. The central range, or real Vindhya, you 
call Sathpoora, which is a modern name. All three ranges con- 
verge towards Booranpoor, and are then continued in the Go- 
vedghur range, or Gondwana." 



32 



the mountains— in Candeish and in the valley of the 
Nerbudda. 

The subjugation of the insurgents was confided to 
Lieutenant (who had now become Captain) Outram. 
With a portion of the Bheel Corps, aided by detach- 
ments of Bengal troops from Mhow, and Bombay 
troops from Malligaum (all of whom were placed 
under his command), he drove the enemy from their 
haunts in the Vindhya Mountains ; chased them 
across the Nerbudda ; compelled their submission • 
and captured their chief. 

On receiving" a report of these proceeding's from the 
Chief Magistrate of Candeish, Government instructed 
their Secretary to write as follows : — 

cc I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of the 3rd instant, with its enclosure, and in ex- 
pressing to you the g*reat satisfaction of Government 
at the successful termination of the expedition under- 
taken against the insurgent Bheels, between the 
Vindhya and the Nerbudda, to request you will com- 
municate to Captain Outram the high sense which 
Government entertain of his ability and judgment in 
concerting, — and of his zeal and activity in execut- 
ing, — those measures by which the insurrection has 
been suppressed, and the neighbouring parts of the 
province of Candeish, preserved from plunder." * 

From this date, Candeish remained so tranquil under 
the able Civil and Political officers entrusted with 
its administration, that the Bheel Corps were not 

* The thanks of Government were also communicated to the 
officers who served under Captain Outram, — Lieutenants Hart and 
Partridge, Ensigns Morris and Renny, and Jemadar Alliar Khan. 



33 



again called on to perform any military services of a 
striking* nature. And their commandant's labours were 
thenceforth of a routine character. But it may not 
be amiss to observe that his "routine" duties were neither 
few nor trivial. Besides having to maintain the effi- 
cieney and discipline of the Bheel Corps — which was 
scattered over the country on outpost service and in 
expeditionary and convoy detachments — he was en- 
trusted with the command of the division of the Poona 
Horse then stationed in Candeish. He had much to 
do in his capacity of magistrate. He was further 
invested with important functions as " Bheel Agent," 
and a Thug* Agent." And, in the discharge of these 
multifarious duties, his presence was in requisition, and 
his influence exerted, in every district of the province $ 
often far beyond its limits. 

Towards the end of September in 1835, his services 
were required by Government for the pacification of 
another troubled country. He accordingly bade adieu 
to the singular corps which it had been his privilege and 
pride to organize and command • and he handed it over, 
900 strong, and in a state of high efficiency, to his 
friend Captain Graham, in whose (and his successors') 
hands it has continued to maintain the reputation it so 
early, and worthily achieved. Outranks Bheel Corps 
has served as the model on which many others have 
been subsequently organized in India. And the present 
writer has reason to believe that, — had the suggestions 
of Sir George Arthur received that attention which 
seems due to the opinions of one of the most experienced 
and distinguished Colonial Administrators that Eng- 
land possesses, — the courage, sagacity, firmness and 

D . 



34 



conciliatory skill which converted the Bheels of Can- 
deish into a the protectors of that peace they had so 
long- disturbed/' would in all probability, long* ere this, 
have given tranquillity to the Cape settlements, and 
provided the Colonists with an efficient frontier Police, 
organized from among-st the savages who now perplex 
and scourge them. 

The nature of these u Memoranda" has neces- 
sarily precluded their compiler from noticing* the 
valuable assistance rendered to the cause of Bheel 
Civilization by Colonel Ovans, Mr. Graham, Majors 
Graham, Rig-by, Morris, and others. The services of 
these gentlemen will find their due recognition in every 
faithful history of a the Civilization of the Bheels." 
But the foreg-oing* pages profess to contain no more 
than a rapid and very brief sketch of some of the suc- 
cessful efforts of one who bore no unimportant, or 
undistinguished part, in that wonderful reformation. 
It is not, however, superfluous to add that Outram 
himself has, at all times, been prompt to acknowledge 
the merits and services of the officers above enume- 
rated 5 and that he has ever retained in grateful 
recollection the generous encouragement, and the 
moral and official aid he received from Colonel 
Robertson, Messrs. Bax, Giberne, and Boyd, but for 
whom his difficulties would have been of a truly dis- 
heartening- nature. 



35 



III. 

SERVICES IN THE MAHEE KANTA. 
1835—1838. 

The distracted condition of the Mahee Kanta, — a 
province of Guzerat bordering- on Malwa and Mey- 
war, — had, for fifteen years, been a source of much 
anxiety both to the Bombay Government and the 
Court of Directors. Continuous mismanagement, on 
the part of its local officers, had at length brought it 
into a state of almost universal insurrection ; and the 
British troops had sustained reverses which, in so 
strong* a country, and amidst so warlike a population, 
it had been found difficult to retrieve. To quote the 
words of the Court of Directors : — 

"Disorder had progressively increased, instead of 
diminishing", until at leng'th, by the confession of all 
the local authorities, neither natives nor British 
officers could travel between Deesa and Ahmedabad 
without a strong- escort. Our officers were subject 
to continual insult and ill-treatment, for which no 
reparation could be obtained ; and the respect for the 
British name and character in that part of Guzerat 
was lower than at any former period."* 

* " Deesa " is evidently a clerical mistake. " Sadra " is pro- 



36 



Such was the country for the pacification of which 
Sir Robert Grant, who had now succeeded to the go- 
vernment of Bombay, put Captain Outranks services 
in requisition. That officer was directed to proceed to 
the theatre of outrage, and to report on the steps by 
which peace and order could best be re-established, 
and permanently maintained. And so urgent was 
this duty considered, that, deadly as were the jungles 
that lay in his way, he was obliged to start on his 
mission in the beginning" of October — the sickliest 
season of the year. 

Crossing* the pestiferous Yindhya range, fol- 
lowing the course of the Nerbudda, and traversing* 
the Barriah jungle, through which no European had 
been known to pass in autumn without paying* the 
forfeit of his life, he reached his destination; visited 
Hursole, and the petty courts of the Rajahs of Edur 
and Ahmednuggur ; and, returning by Deesa and 

bably the town indicated in the foreg'oing quotation. But as 
" Deesa" occurs in the copy of the Court's Despatch lying- before 
him, the compiler has not ventured to make any hypothetical 
alteration in the text. In the Despatch here quoted from, the 
Court of Directors, while condemning" the local officers who had 
successively (for fifteen years) mismanaged the Mahee Kanta, 
made special and honourable exemption of Mr. John Pollard 
Willoughby. But that able Indian functionary had been removed, 
by promotion, to a high appointment in the Government Secre- 
tariate ere time was afforded him to make any decided impression 
on the country j and the good he effected had been more than 
neutralized by the subsequent mismanagement of six years, which 
preceded Captain Outram's mission. Such readers as may not 
have been in India, are informed that the Mahee Kanta (or the 
littoral of the River Mahee) is pronounced as if it were written 
Mye-Caunta. 



37 



Ahmedabad, arrived in Bombay in December, when 
he proceeded to submit his views to Government. 

That many of the insurgent chiefs laboured under 
real, and very serious grievances, he had little doubt. 
And he was desirous that every complaint should be 
patiently investigated • that ample redress should be 
afforded, wherever wrong* had been sustained* and 
that the harsh and coercive policy, hitherto pursued 
with such signal unsuccess, should be replaced by one 
of gentleness and conciliation. But, at the same 
time, he deemed it of the utmost consequence to satisfy 
the rebels that the conciliatory measures which he 
advised were not inspired by fear, or by a sense of 
our inability to enforce obedience. Keeping in view 
the disastrous results of the efforts that had hitherto 
been made to reduce the insurgents, and the daring 
and unchastised insolence with which our troops had 
been treated, he was of opinion that submission should 
be demanded as a preliminary to the investigation 
of alleged grievances. And by the adoption of ener- 
getic and decisive military measures against the most 
powerful of the chiefs who mig^ht obstinately refuse to 
lay down their arms, he proposed to awe the rest into 
obedience, to restore our tarnished military prestige, 
and thus to place the Government in a position to 
display clemency, without incurring the suspicion of 
weakness. 

These views were not fully concurred in by the 
Government. Sir Bobert Grant was — if the expres- 
sion may be used consistently with the profound respect 
due to the memory of so great and g*ood a man — an 
exaggerated embodiment of the " Peace" principle ; 



38 



and tender-hearted to excess. Full of sympathy for 
men whom harsh measures, and a denial of inquiry 
into their claims had driven to arms, he took not into 
account the demoralization which a decade and a half 
of lawlessness had effected in them. He had seen a 
purely conciliatory policy successful in another pro- 
vince of Gruzerat; and, overlooking the difference in 
the condition of the two countries, he assumed that 
the measures which, under the masterly management 
of Major Walker, Captain Barnewell, and Mr. Wil- 
loughby, had given peace to Katty war and Rajpeempla, 
must necessarily suffice for the tranquillization of the 
Mahee Kanta. He relied on professions of love, and 
promises of justice, to pacify semi-barbarians, who, 
exasperated by severity, and weary of making* vain 
appeals for justice, had for years been in a state of 
open insurrection — devastating* the country with fire 
and sword, assailing and insulting British officers 
with impunity, and mocking the military efforts made 
for their coercion. Nay, so confident was this esti- 
mable and benevolent governor of the omnipotence of 
gentle speech and singleness of purpose, that he 
actually diminished the strength of the force which 
had already found itself inadequate to control the 
insurgents ; though Captain Outram had recom- 
mended that it should be temporarily increased, not 
necessarily for employment, but for purposes of de- 
monstration.* 

* That the Government of Sir Robert Grant failed to recognize 
the difference between the condition of Kattywar, and that of the 
Mahee Kanta, was distinctly implied by the Court of Directors, 
in the despatch in which they informed him that they gave a pre- 



39 



In January 1836 ; Captain Outram was again de- 
spatched to the Mahee Kanta ; charged with the duty of 
re-estabhshing* order, but instructed to modify his 
original plans so as to meet the more pacific views of 
Government. 

Earnestly did he endeavour to fulfil these incom- 
patible requirements. But, despite his anxiety to avoid 
the application of force, he found himself constrained 
to employ it. The arrogance and audacity of the 
Rebel Chiefs (whom our past failures had fully 
satisfied of our inability to coerce them) derived in- 
creased force from the policy which aspired to miti- 

ference to the views of Captain Outram, who objected to the intro- 
duction into the latter country of the judicial machinery which had 
been found suitable for the former. That the excessive lenity of 
Sir Robert Grant, and his undue application to all men of that 
Christian charity of which he was himself a " living- epistle," 
— " thinking no evil . . believing* all things, hoping' all things, 
enduring all things" — led to serious and lamentable consequences, 
will be readily admitted by all who may take the trouble to read the 
earlier portion of Colonel Outram's " Khutput Report," contained 
in the Baroda Blue Book, page 1840 to 1484. That Sir Robert's 
ultra-peace policy went beyond the wishes of the Court of Directors, 
was practically admitted by that body, who subsequently observed 
that they "never thought the pacification of the Mahee Kanta 
a thing to be accomplished without the exhibition, and occasional 
employment of force." "We wished," they observed, "that per- 
suasion should be first employed ; but, that while terms were offered, 
troops should be also set in motion ; that not our power alone, 
nor our justice alone, but both at once, should be made manifest ; 
while even when it became necessary to use force, all due allow- 
ances should be made for the refractory — when taken, they 
should be treated with lenity rather than severity." As will be 
seen, such were the maxims on which Outram sought to base his 
policy and proceedings. 



40 



gate their hostility by diminishing- the military 
resources available for their control. And, after vain 
attempts to bring- one of the most influential of them to 
reason — but not till he had warned him of the certain 
results of his contumacy — Outram proclaimed him an 
outlaw, and called in the aid of his friend Captain 
(now Colonel) David Forbes, the gallant and able 
soldier then in command of the Mahee Kanta Field 
Detachments. 

Following the outlawed Sooruj-Mull into the moun- 
tains which divide Guzerat from Mey war, these officers 
established their Head-Quarters in the very centre of 
the strongholds which the Rebels had hitherto deemed 
impregnable. And, penetrating fastness after fastness, 
till their wearied and disheartened foe submitted, they 
gave a new and salutary complexion to our military 
relations with the country. The clemency and prof- 
ferred redress of all his grievances, which Sooruj-Mull 
had scorned, as begot of conscious weakness, he now 
gratefully accepted as the offspring of his victor's 
generosity. And his brother chiefs read in his abase- 
ment, and subsequent reception into favour, a lesson 
which they were not slow to profit by. 

But, gratifying', beyond even Outranks antici- 
pations, as were the results of his energetic measures, 
and truly merciful as events proved this early appli- 
cation of force to have been, it was viewed with 
disfavour by the Government. They deemed it in- 
consistent with the purely conciliatory policy they had 
prescribed 5 and they characterized it as unnecessarily 
severe. 

They, however, congratulated Outram a on so for- 



41 



tunate a result of his spirited, though, in their opinion, 
somewhat harsh proceedings f and they admitted that 
u the plan had been executed with a skill and decision 
worthy of Captains Outram and Forbes/' Express- 
ing* their u hope that good might arise out of evil/' 
they declared their willingness u that Captain Outranks 
success should be ascribed not to his instructions but to 
his departure from them, provided only that the spirit 
of the instructions were henceforth carried into effect." 
And ; in modification of their censure, they added that, 
a with the exception of the outlawry of Sooruj-Mull, 
the whole of Captain Outram's proceedings reflect on 
him the highest credit, and entitle him to the warmest 
commendation of Government." 

But Outram, conscious that he had, throughout, 
acted in the spirit of his instructions, and with an 
earnest desire to reduce the application of force to the 
lowest practicable minimum, respectfully remonstrated 
against a reproof which, though slight, he felt to be 
unjust. And the Political Commissioner, to whom 
was confided the general superintendence and control 
of Guzerat, thus expressed himself, in handing up the 
remonstrance : — 

u In the situation I now fill, -both with reference to 
the talented officer whose despatch I now forward and 
the Government, — I cannot hesitate to state my opinion 
that I consider his conduct, under circumstances of 
great difficulty, as peculiarly adapted to the end in 
view. His firm and active measures combined (be it 
said, with all deference to the opinions of superior 
authority) with conduct conciliatory to the very verge 
of excess , entitle him to the warmest commendation." 



42 

In reply to this communication, the Political Com- 
missioner was directed to assure Captain Outram that 
he greatly erred if he supposed that he had lost the 
confidence of Government \ that " the confidence of 
Government as it was not lightly given would not 
be lightly withdrawn." <( And/'— thus proceeded the 
letter : — 

a The Bight Hon. the Governor in Council trusts 
that Captain Outram will go on cheerfully under the 
conviction that, though Government may dissent from 
his judgment in some points, it entertains the firmest 
general reliance on his zeal, enterprise, and sagacity • 
and confidently anticipates from his efforts under Pro- 
vidence, the ultimate achievement of one of its most 
important and favourite objects — the civilization of 
the Mahee Kanta." 

In a few days, the Government again addressed 
the Political Commissioner, directing him to inform 
Captain Outram that the fuller information of which 
they were then possessed, induced them to qualify 
materially the opinions they had previously expressed 
regarding the outlawry of Sooruj-Mull. They cha- 
racterized as u very remarkable 77 the success with 
which Outram had gained the confidence of his 
defeated foe ; u and still more remarkable" did they 
pronounce the impression which his combination of 
energetic and conciliatory measures had a produced 
on the minds of the people in general." They viewed 
with satisfaction, and bright auguries of the future, 
u his efforts to pacify and conciliate the troubled and 
long mismanaged country in which he was serving-" 
and they begged to assure him that - • the Govern- 



43 



ment which had declaredly selected him for his 
present post on account of the qualifications displayed 
by him in Candeish, was of opinion that, so far as his 
opportunities had allowed, the selection had already 
been in no small degTee justified." 

This letter was dated the 26th May 1836 ) just four 
months after he had been called on to give repose to 
a land that, for fifteen years, had been the theatre 
of outrage. On the 16th of June, the Government 
had again occasion to express their approbation of the 
manner in which Captain Outram acquitted himself 
of his difficult duties, — u strictly fulfilling- his instruc- 
tions, while, at the same time, maintaining* the con- 
sistency of his own proceedings." And, from time 
to time, they continued to render most gratifying- 
tributes to his " judicious proceeding's" — the a cha- 
racteristic energy and effect" of his measures — his 
" judgment and discretion" — the a merciful" spirit of 
his arrang-ements — his "humane and judicious orders," 
&c. &c. &c. To only one of his undertaking's did they 
strongly object. And it may not be amiss to describe 
the censured measure, illustrating*, as its sequel does, 
a singular feature in Outranks career — the facility 
with which he invariably gains the confidence and 
affection of his conquered enemies, and the total 
absence of animosity displayed towards him by those— 
princes or people — whom he has found himself com- 
pelled to coerce, or punish. The circumstances were 
these : — 

Early in 1837, the Chieftain of Aglore, a Grui- 
cowar subject in successful rebellion against his own 
Sovereign, established his head-quarters at the fortified 



44 



village of Runseepoor, situated on the very line of the 
British horder. Separated from the Mahee Kanta 
only hy the river Saburmuttee, he sent his emissaries 
among* the Kholis of that province \ and a rapid 
extension of the rebellion throughout our own ter- 
ritories was only averted by the promptitude with 
which Captain Outram proceeded to the frontier, and 
taking* up a strong* position within his own boundaries, 
adopted measures to prevent further intercourse be- 
tween the insurgents and the people of the Mahee 
Kanta. In reporting to Government the precautionary 
arrangements he had made, he announced that the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Guicowar Army, feeling 
himself inadequate to the subjugation of the rebels, 
had earnestly implored our assistance. He solicited 
the early instructions of Government as to compliance 
or non-compliance with this request; intimating, at 
the same time, that while a successful insurrection was 
extending* along our frontier, he could not calculate 
on the continuance of tranquillity amongst the still 
unsettled inhabitants of the Mahee Kanta, who were 
related to the insurgents by tribe — many of them by 
consanguinity. And he described the difficulties of his 
position to be such that, if by a certain date (which 
afforded sufficient time for an answer to his despatch), 
he was not prohibited from doing so, he would deem 
it his duty to co-operate with the Guicowar General, 
for the suppression of the outbreak. 

Owing to some official accident, never satisfactorily 
explained, a delay occurred in placing this letter before 
Council. No answer, therefore, was received; and as the 
Political Commissioner had negatively sanctioned the 



45 



measure, Outram arranged with the Commander-in- 
Chief of the Guicowar Army, to make a combined 
attack on Runseepoor. After a stout resistance on 
the part of the insurgents, their position was carried ; 
many were slain ; the rest were dispersed ; their leaders 
were captured; and the tranquillity of the Mahee Kanta 
was preserved. 

The measure was however condemned by the Bom- 
bay Government. They considered that it was wrong* 
to aid our ally in coercing* his subjects, while we had no 
guarantee that their grievances would be investigated, 
or redressed. They did not feel inclined to make 
much allowance for the difficult position of the officer 
whom they held responsible for maintaining the peace 
of an imperfectly tranquillized, and highly inflammable 
country, and who saw all his efforts in risk of frustra- 
tion, from the inducements to revolt held out to his 
people by the successful frontier outrages of their re- 
latives, and tribal friends — men, who, whatever may 
have been their grievances, were self-constituted out- 
laws, spreading terror and desolation over the land. 
And, in reporting the circumstance to the Court of 
Directors, the Government, through their Chief Secre- 
tary, wrote as follows \ — 

a Capt. Outram, I am desired to observe, is regarded 
by Government as one of the first military officers 
under this Presidency. Being* full of courage, resource, 
activity, and intelligence, at those periods when the 
British power was struggling for existence or for em- 
pire, he would have acted a brilliant part \ but his fault 
is, that, though perfectly fitted for the performance of 
civil duties, he is essentially warlike. The capture of 



46 



Runseepoor was of easy accomplishment ; yet, so far as 
was compatible with operations on so minute a scale, 
those of Capt. Outram were, in the opinion of Govern- 
ment, perfect both in conception and execution; and 
deeply do they regret that his great military talents 
should have been exercised on such a field." 

On receiving* the Despatch from which the fore- 
going- quotation is taken, the Court of Directors 
deemed it their duty to prohibit the further employ- 
ment of Captain Outram in the Mahee Kanta — a under 
the belief that his longer presence would keep alive feel- 
ing's of mutual distrust and animosity among-st the 
parties concerned in these unfortunate transactions." 
But ampler information led the Court of Directors 
to modify their opinions.* On a the earnest recom- 
mendation" of the Indian authorities, and influ- 
enced by " the ample evidence now added to that 
already possessed ...... 

of Captain Outranks extraordinary fitness for at least 
the executive part of the duty of re-establishing* order 
and tranquillity in a country like the Mahee Kanta/' 
— the Directors withdrew their prohibition. And, in 
doing- so, they acknowledged that NO a feeling's 
of mutual distrust and animosity" had been excited 
(c even while the transactions were recent \ and that the 
reports of the Government contained satisfactory evi- 
dence cc of the great confidence reposed in Captain 

* The Court, indeed, declared that " of Captain Outram' s views 
they still entertained the same opinion." But on reference to the 
note at the foot of page 39, it will be seen that the views of 
the Court were, in reality, much more in harmony with those of 
Outram, than with those of Sir R. Grant. 



47 



Outram by all classes in the Mahee Kdnta, and of the 
general feeling of respect which, through his exertions, 
is now entertained in that country for the British 
Government." The despatch proceeded : — 

u That your disposition to grant terms to the out- 
laws was at first misconstrued^ and imputed to hmbility 
to coerce them ; is a result which mig'ht have been ex- 
pected from former experience. The false impression 
it is admitted is now at an end. To have removed it 
so speedily is honourable^ in the highest degree^ to 
Captain Outranks talents and energy • nor do we doubt 
that it could only have been effected (as he states) by 
most arduous personal exertions on his own part; and 
on that of his able assistant Lieut. Wallace."* 

So successful had been these exertions that; in June 
1838 — little more than two years after undertaking* 
the pacification of the province— Captain Outram was ; 
to "the high satisfaction of Government . . enabled 
to dispense with the services of the Troops in the 
Mahee Kdnta." 

This reformation had been effected^ as the Court of 
Directors subsequently observed,, a without taking a 
single life — except in the field, or depriving a single 
person of his estate" And its beneficial effects were 
experienced far beyond the sphere of Captain Outranks 
official authority. Thus in March 1839 ; the Judicial 

* Now Captain Wallace, of the 18th Regt. N. I. This valu- 
able officer afterwards earned high distinction in the Political 
department of Sind ; subsequently he became Political Agent in 
the Mahee Kanta ; and recently his services have been obtained 
for the general superintendence of the magisterial and Police 
arrangements of Western India. 



48 



Commissioner, in reporting* to Government a the hig-hly 
satisfactory and surprisingly tranquil and peaceable" 
state of the Ahmedabad districts during- the preceding- 
year, and their unwonted freedom from plunderers, 
remarked that he could not — 

u Ascribe this to any improvement in the Police, for 
its stipendiary and hereditary servants are the same, 
and their inefficiency has lately been reported, and a 
radical chang-e proposed by Mr. Jackson. ... It is, 
then, to other causes we must turn * and there can 
be little doubt that these may be traced to the excellent 
arrang-ements, and judicious proceeding's of Captain 
Outram, Political Ag-ent in the Mahee Kanta." 

The officer who could point to such results of his 
administration, was doubtless well entitled to the fol- 
lowing- eulog'ium from his superiors ; — 

a On the occasions on which he acted on his own 
responsibility, and received the commendation of Go- 
vernment, he has shown how judicious was the selection 
which placed him, from the experience of his most 
valuable services in Candeish, in the office of Political 
Agent for the Mahee Kanta. But if his energy and 
prompt decision have been often important in their con- 
sequences, not less have his execution of instructions 
varying from his own impressions of what was best, and 
his scrupulous obedience, when unexpected events did 
not call for his assuming the responsibility of action. 
The confidence of Government in the influence of this 
principle, not unfrequently recorded, . . . will be par- 
ticularly pointed out to the Honourable Court as show- 
ing- the very hig-h opinion entertained of Captain Out- 
ram's military and political character." 



49 



Little do the people of England understand the 
multiform, onerous, and incessant duties that devolve 
on Indian officials — the amount of miscellaneous but 
accurate information they are required to gather and 
apply — the versatility of talent demanded of them. 
Extensive as are the requirements made on all our 
Indian functionaries, those exacted from the class of 
officers designated " Political Agents," are such as 
almost to surpass belief. And the compiler of these 
u Memoranda" hopes, at no distant date, by a narra- 
tive of the progress of Civilization in the Pro- 
vinces of Candeish, Kattywar, and the Mahee Kanta, 
to draw attention to the amount of administrative 
industry, energy, and talent, that is lost to this coun- 
try and the colonies, by the disinclination of Her 
Majesty's Government to employ the retired political 
officers of the East India Company, on Imperial 
services. 

In the mean time, he can but briefly glance at a few 
of the more important of the functions discharged by 
Captain Outram, during the two and a half years he 
was engaged (to borrow^ the words of the Court of 
Directors) u in tranquillizing* a country so long' in a state 
of disorder — establishing a sense both of the power 
and of the justice of the British Government— and 
removing evils which length of time had rendered 
almost inveterate." 

As a magistrate, he had an amount of work to per- 
form, the recital of which would cause surprise to all 
whose ideas of magisterial duties are derived from 
attendance on the police courts of this country. And 
for u the unremitting and laborious exertions " which 

E 



50 



he made in this department of the public service, he 
received the warm commendations of Government. 

Faithful to his promise to examine into and redress 
the wrong's of the Mahee Kanta chiefs, he undertook 
many delicate and intricate judicial investigations. 
And it was intimated to him by Government, that 
u the eminently successful results of these labours — 
the temper, skill, and patience of his investigation of 
claims and gTievances — had often been brought to the 
favourable notice of the Honourable Court." 

Not satisfied with redressing- the wrongs of those 
whom he had prohibited from taking the law into their 
own hands, he applied himself to their extrication from 
those pecuniary embarrassments which, originating in 
then former lawless habits, still kept them in bondage 
to usurers, and tempted them to oppress their subjects. 
Ere this could be effected, it was necessary to institute 
many intricate financial inquiries, and to elucidate the 
origin, trace the history, and investigate the practical 
results of several mischievous financial arrangements. 
And the Political Commissioner was directed, in 1838, 
to u convey to Captain Outram the high approbation of 
Government for the attention he had bestowed on this 
subject, and for the ability he had displayed in bringing 
to notice the ruinous effects of the present Nisha 
system." 

The establishment in the Mahee Kanta of regular 
tribunals for the administration of justice was another 
subject that occupied his attention. His views in refer- 
ence to this matter differed somewhat from those of the 
Government, and were honoured with the preference 
of the Court of Directors. 



51 



In co-operation with Colonel Spiers, the active and 
able Political Agent for the neighbouring provinces of 
Me}' war and Malwa, he applied himself to the settle- 
ment of the border feuds which had for long* rendered 
that part of the country impassable to merchants and 
travellers. And by the conjoint labours of these two 
earnest officers, the roads were re-opened — arrange- 
ments were made with the various chiefs for the 
encouragement of traffic — full protection was secured 
to caravans — the transit duties were reduced — and 
a great annual Fair was established. For these not 
unimportant contributions to the cause of commerce, 
and the extension of civilization, Colonel Spiers and 
Captain Outram were warmly praised, and cordially 
thanked, by the Bombay Government, the Governor- 
General, and the Court of Directors. 

As this little volume professes to give only a few 
" memoranda," and not a detailed account of his services, 
it were out of place to enter into a more minute recital of 
Captain Outranks performances in the Mahee Kanta ; 
but it may not be amiss to observe that, during his brief 
career in that province, his activity and persuasive 
abilities were called into requisition for the benefit of 
districts lying beyond his jurisdiction. One example 
shall suffice : — 

The success of the Bheel Corps had suggested to 
Government the propriety of raising an analogous 
body from amongst the Kholis of Guzerat — a race 
that had hitherto proved nearly as intractable as the 
Bheels of Candeish— -and Captain Leclrie, who has 
since earned distinction as a political officer, was nomi- 
nated as its Commandant. But though the corps was 



52 



destined for service in the Ahmedabad and Kaira dis- 
tricts, its organization was directed to be effected under 
Captain Outranks superintendence, from amongst the 
recently rebellious Kholis of the Mahee Kanta. And 
the latter officer received the cordial acknowledgments 
of Government for the manner in which he had pro- 
moted and facilitated the formation of the corps, and 
for the success with which he had influenced his own 
Kholi chiefs to persuade their kinsmen and clansmen, 
not merely to enlist, but to submit to discipline. 

Not satisfied with having, from time to time, given 
utterance to his appreciation of Captain Outranks 
merits, Sir Robert Grant expressed himself as follows, 
in a Minute in Council, recorded on the 17th July 
1838:— 

" There is an exhibition of talent, and energy, and 
devotion to the service, in Captain Outram, which will 
not fail to be justly estimated by the Honourable 
Court j and in an officer who can appeal to the conse- 
quences of his measures, is creditable to the feelings 
which have actuated him in all his arduous duties. 
The success which has attended him in the pacification 
of the Mahee Kanta, he truly urges, has been effected 
by these exertions, £ under the blessing of Heaven, on 
the humane intentions of the British Government/ " 

And Sir Robert's colleague in Council, Mr. (now Sir 
George) Anderson, the present Governor of Ceylon, 
endorsed these remarks with the following additional 
minute : — 

u I would beg to record that, in the short time I 
have been in the Government, I have observed in the 
despatches of Captain Outram great talent, and a mind 



53 

evidently earnestly engaged in carrying* out measures 
for the welfare and tranquillization of the disturbed 
country committed to his charge." 

Circumstances had occurred which gave unusual 
value to these testimonials. 

In the course of his Judicial investigations, Captain 
Outram discovered the general prevalence of a system, 
which, under the designation of "Khutput," has re- 
cently excited considerable sensation and scandal in 
Western India.* 

He ascertained that a general belief pervaded all 
classes of the community that, by means of intrigues 
at the Presidency, the arrangements of the local 
officers could be upset — their judgments reversed — cor- 
rupt or incompetent native officials restored to the 
situations of which they had been* deprived — and even 
convicted criminals released from punishment. He 
found that every post in the Political establishments of 
Guzerat, had become filled by members of the Nagur 
(or Snake) division of Brahmins, who, trading on this dis- 
honouring and mischievous belief, had a direct interest 
in exciting discontent — in stimulating litigation — and in 
perpetuating those feuds which had spread terror, ra- 
pine, and bloodshed, over the land. And what grieved 
him most was the conviction, which could not be set 
aside, that the Government had itself, by a mistaken 
lenity, rivetted the belief in " Khutput" on the minds of 
the people. Over and over again had they discouraged 
inquiry into the alleged misconduct of native officials ] 
over and over again had they set aside, as inconclusive, 

* " Making Khutput (illicit action) in Bombay." The term is 
a Mahratta one. 



54 



evidence which their Political and Judicial Officers 
deemed completely satisfactory • often had they put in 
extenuatory pleas in behalf of the accused 5 and when, 
at length, compelled to convict, they awarded punish- 
ments singularly mild. 

Earnestly did Outram struggle against the monstrous 
system of corruption, by which the Chiefs and their 
subjects were plundered, under the pretence that the 
money which they paid to the native harpies of the Po- 
litical offices, reached the hands of the Bombay Autho- 
rities. Urgently and forcibly did he plead with the 
Government for a reversal of the lenient policy which, 
by giving' an air of verisimilitude to the boasts made 
by the corruptionists of their secret understanding with 
high functionaries, brought unmerited dishonour on the 
rulers, and demoralized the people of the country. 
And he ceased not from his efforts till he had, by a 
laborious accumulation of evidence, left the Government 
no alternative but to convict and dismiss the leading 
Nagurs, whose guilt they had been so slow to 
admit. 

In the course of these services, led away by the 
warmth of his zeal, and wielding a pen that had not been 
trained to euphuistic exercises, he not unfrequently 
employed language which some men might perhaps 
have felt inclined to resent as u disrespectful." But it 
was Outranks privilege to serve under statesmen who 
could appreciate him. The matter not the manner, — 
the gold and not u the guinea stamp," — were looked at 
in those days. And the Government never dreamed of 
taking* offence at the plain speaking of their subordi- 
nates, while satisfied that their words were the utter- 



55 



ances of full, and generous, and truthful hearts, and 
that they drew their inspiration from a jealous tender- 
ness for the honour of the British name. Strong- as 
was the lang'uage in which Captain Outram addressed 
his superiors, embarrassing* the facts he pressed on their 
attention, and uncomplimentary the logical conclusions 
he drew from these facts, the Government continued, 
as has been seen, to place on public record the esteem 
and confidence they reposed in him • and they honoured 
him in private with their friendship.* 

In October 1838, Captain Outram having fully ac- 
complished the task assigned to him in January 1836, 
requested permission to relinquish his political appoint- 
ment, that he might (at a pecuniary sacrifice of up- 
wards of £700 per annum) join the military expedition 
that was then being organized for the purpose of de- 
posing Dost Mahommed, and restoring' Shah Soojah 
to the throne of Affghanistan. The Government 
acceded to his request, and directed their Chief Secre- 
tary to address him as follows : — 

"In complying with your application, however, 
Government cannot help feeling the great loss to the 
public service which your temporary absence from your 
present important duties in the Mahee Kanta will oc- 
casion, but being' impressed with the high qualifications 
which you possess for rendering the most valuable 
services on an occasion like the present for which your 
zeal has now prompted you to offer yourself, the Go- 

* A reference to Colonel Outram' s Khutput Report, in the Baroda 
Blue Book, will show how much stronger was the language em- 
ployed by him in 1838, than that which was assigned as a cause 
for his removal from the office of Resident at Baroda in 1851, 



56 



vernor in Council has not thought it right to withhold 
his acquiescence in your wishes. 

" I am further desired to inform you that your ap- 
plication has been brought to the notice of the Bight 
Honourable the Governor-General of India, who, it is 
doubted not, will duly appreciate the laudable motives 
which have actuated you on this occasion."* 

And the Political Commissioner, under whose eye 
Captain Outram had more immediately served, and 
through whom this communication was transmitted, 
wrote in the following terms : — 

u It is with feelings of unfeigned concern that I 
learn we are to lose the benefit of your most valuable 
services in the Mahee Kanta ; particularly so, when, 
after a highly judicious management of a country in 
complete disorder at the time of your taking charge, 
your measures for its prosperity are coming to maturity. 
Much as I regret your departure, I beg you will ac- 
cept of my best wishes for the promotion of your views 
in the new sphere of action into which your zeal for 
the service has led you ; and where I feel confident the 
exercise of these qualifications for Government will 
ensure you the respect and esteem of those under whom 
you may be called upon to serve." 

* October 27th, 1838. In consequence of the death of Sir R. 
Grant, the Government of Bombay had then devolved on the 
Honourable Mr. Farish. 



57 



III. 

SERVICES DURING THE INVASION OF 
AFGHANISTAN, 

1838—1839. 

On the 21st November, 1838, the Bombay Division 
of the Army destined for the invasion of AhVhanistan 
under Sir J ohn Keane,* sailed from Bombay en route 
to Sind ; and on the 27th it reached the Hujamry 
mouth of the Indus, in the confident expectation of 
being' able, without delay, to prosecute its onward march. 
But it was doomed to disappointment. The nature of 
its embarrassments, aud the manner in which it was 
extricated from them, are explained in the following- 
passage from Dr. Kennedy's interesting narrative : — f 
u Our halt on the banks of the Indus was prolonged 
to December 24th, solely from the want of camels and 
boats, which had been promised to be ready against 
our arrival. These were not only not ready, but the 
local authorities at Kurrachee had prevented the mer- 
chants from sending* 800 camels which they had 

* On whose staff Ontram occupied the post of Honorary Aide- 
de-camp. 

t " Narrative of the Campaign of the Army of the Indus in 
Sind and Cabool, in 1838." By Richard Hartley Kennedy, 
M.D. ; late Chief of the Medical Staff of the Bombay Division of 
the Army of the Indus. Bentley, 1840. — pp. 63 —64. 



§8 

engaged. . . . The unparalleled activity and energies 
of Captain Outram had, however, been devoted in aid 
of those who ought to have foreseen and provided 
against these difficulties. He left the anchorage at 
the Hujamry, and proceeded to Mandavie, whence he 
travelled to Bhooj, and laboured at the Cutch Durbar 
to carry points which should neither have been left to 
this late hour, nor yet left to his management. Having* 
surpassed all expectation in what he was able to effect, 
he re-embarked at Mandavie, and sailed to Kurrachee, 
where he landed • and, travelling across the country, 
rejoined us at Tatta. 

"To him chiefly, if not entirely, was it to be at- 
tributed that on the 22nd (December), it was reported 
that a sufficient number of camels had been collected 5 
and orders were given for the Army to advance, in two 
divisions. *'* 

The Army was, however, soon brought to a tempo- 
rary stand-still ; for the Ameers of Hydrabad viewed 
with natural irritation and alarm the intrusion on their 
soil of an imposing British force, and hesitated to accept 
the harsh and oppressive treaty which, regardless of 
existing solemn compacts, their unwelcome visitors now 
proffered to them at the point of the bayonet. But 
until the ratification of that treaty, the army could not 
advance beyond the Capital of Lower Sind ; and as 
we were too conscious of our strength to waste much 
time in arguing on the justice of our requirements, an 

* See also Kaye's " History of the War in Afghanistan," Vol. I., 
p. 395 • and the " History of the War in Afghanistan," by an 
Officer of High Rank in the Indian Army, edited by Charles 
Nash, Esq., p. 122. 



59 



ultimatum was, on the 16th of January, communicated 
to the Sindian Princes, by Captain William Eastwick, as 
the Deputy of Sir Henry Pottinger, the British Repre- 
sentative at their Highnesses' Court.* It was deemed 
fitting* that, on such an occasion, the diplomatist should 
be accompanied by a representative of the military 
chief, who was at hand to enforce his demands 5 and 
on Captain Outram it devolved to stand sponsor for the 
warlike resolves of Sir John Keane. 

Powerless to resist, the intimidated Ameers signed the 
treaty ; and on the 10th of February the Army resumed 
its march, to effect a junction with the two columns that 
were advancing* from the north — the one under the 
command of Sir Willoughby Cotton, — the other (the 
rabble a Contingent " of His Majesty Shah Sooja), 
ostensibly led by the King* himself. 

All three forces had many difficulties to contend 
with; their progress was slow, their privations nu- 
merous. And the hardships and sufferings of the Bom- 
bay Troops were greatly aggravated by the dishonesty 
of a native official, till Captain Outram brought him 
before a Military Court, and thus put a stop to mal- 
practices that a fell heavily on the juniors of the officers, 
and ruinously on the native soldiers."! 

Though Outram had, to quote the words of Dr. 
Kennedy, u set the Army in motion/' by the energy 
and success with which he provided it with "car- 

* Captain Eastwick is now an E. I. Director, and to his im- 
mortal honour, has availed himself of every opportunity of de- 
nouncing- the wrongs of the unfortunate Ameers, and of urging- 
their strong- claims on us for sympathy and redress. 

f Kennedy's Narrative, Vol I., p. 157. 



60 



riag*e,"* he could not prevent the camels from dying* • 
and such had been the mortality among* these animals 
during* the march, that, on reaching* Upper Sind, 
Sir John Keane found it would be impossible 
for him to move his entire column up the Bolan 
Pass without an additional supply. This, it was sup- 
posed, could only be obtained by influencing* the 
British Envoy (Sir William Macnag'hten), who was in 
attendance on the King*, to keep back a portion of 
Shah Sooja's hig*hly-prized " Contingent/' and transfer 
their camels to the Bombay Division. Such an ar- 
rangement, however, was only to be effected by adroit 
diplomacy ; for the self-complacency of His Majesty, 
and the official dig*nity of the Envoy, had been so seri- 
ously offended by the contempt for their unsoldierly 
levy, which Sir Willoug'hby Cotton undisgmisedly 
evinced, and Sir John Keane barely affected to con- 
ceal, that Sir William Macnag*hten, assuming* a hig*h 
tone, had insisted on a prominent place being* given to 
the Shah, in the approaching- operations.! And the 
Commander-in-Chief had cog*ent reasons for avoiding* 
a rupture with the British Plenipotentiary. He there- 
fore resolved to g*o throug'h the form of offering* a 
thousand of his own insufficient herd of camels for the 
use of the Conting-ent ; but he determined, at the same 
time, that the reverse arrangement should be carried 
out, if by skilful management it could be effected. 
Shah Sooja and Sir William Macnag-hten were 90 

* The term used in India to designate the means of transporting 

stores and ammunition, whetlier carts, elephants, camels, horses, 
<fec. (fee. 

t Vide Kaye's War in Affghanistan, Vol. I. p. 412. 



01 



miles off. And even if the delicate negotiations con- 
templated could have been conducted by letter, they 
brooked neither the delay, nor the risk of interruption 
attendant on epistolary correspondence, in a country 
utterly destitute of postal establishments, and overrun 
by marauders. It was necessary, therefore, that Sir 
John Keane should detach to the Shah's camp some 
officer in whose zeal, tact, and conciliatory talents he 
could repose confidence ; and Captain Outram was 
selected for the service. 

The duty confided to him he performed with a suc- 
cess beyond even the anticipations of his chief, who re- 
ceived, from Sir W. Macnaghten, a supply of camels 
more than double in number those he had offered for 
the use of .the Shah's Contingent. And so favourable 
an impression did Outram make on the Envoy, that 
the latter invited him to take office on the Political 
Staff of the Expedition. But though grateful for Sir 
William's offer, Outram declined withdrawing' himself 
from the Military Department while there remained 
a prospect of active operations in the field. 

No sooner had he rejoined the Head Quarters of the 
Army, than he was called on to release Sir John Keane 
from another, and somewhat uncomfortable, embarrass- 
ment. On reaching- Larkhana, the Cutch camelmen 
— between two and three thousand in number — had 
struck work. Threats, promises, expostulations, and 
entreaties, were all equally in vain. They positively 
refused to march another stage ; and those who have 
campaigned in the East require not to be told what it 
is to have to deal with recusant camel-drivers in an un- 
friendly country. For four days were these refractory 



02 



characters, on whose aid and fidelity so much de- 
pended, unsuccessfully appealed to, — now in tones of 
intimidation, now in terms of cajolery. Matters be- 
came serious; and, at last, Outram was called in to 
quell the mutiny. By his stern determination, he did 
so effectually ; and the camelmen did not again ven- 
ture to dispute orders. They found they had one to 
deal with who never indulged in a threat which he 
was not prepared to execute. 

Tedious continued to he the advance towards the 
Bolan Pass. Further negotiations had from time to 
time to be conducted with the Envoy ; and to Outram 
were they entrusted, until he met with an accident, 
which it was, at one time, feared might permanently 
incapacitate him for the active duties of his profession. 

"On the morning of the 21st (March 1839)," writes 
Dr. Kennedy, " I had the melancholy satisfaction of 
thinking- that I was not the most unlucky wight in the 
Bombay Column. On riding towards the new encamp- 
ment, I was met by Captain Outram, who told me, in 
the most consolatary tone and terms he could devise, 
that one of my Camels, with all its load of baggage, 
had been carried off by thieves. This was no jest . . 
Great indeed was my vexation \ but before it was half 
digested, a clamour and rumour, as of some accident, 
were heard \ and I soon discovered that poor Outram, 
as I galloped one way to inquire into the extent of 
my disaster, and he the other, had met with a most 
serious accident, his horse rolling headlong' and crushing 
him in the fall. He was dashed to the ground with 
the hilt of his sword under him, and had suffered the 
very unusual injury of a fracture of the pelvis bone, at 



the crest of the ilium. And thus in a moment, and 
in the midst of a distinguished career of important 
usefulness, was this valuable officer to be a bed- 
ridden cripple, and the Army to be deprived of his 
energetic virtues, and profound knowledge. I felt 
ashamed to have repined at the loss of some paltry 
property when, at the instant, a calamity so much 
more distressing- was occurring* to one so peculiarly 
situated." 

Borne on a litter, Captain Outram proceeded with 
the Army* and after a month's confinement, he re- 
sumed his duties. 

Sir John Keane met with no opposition till he reached 
Ghiznee. On the 23rd of July that Fortress was taken ; 
and on the evening* preceding* its capture, Captain 
Outram had an opportunity of rendering* some g*ood 
service, which is thus alluded to by one of the His- 
torians of the Affo'han war : — 

a While arrangements connected with the coming- 
night's proceeding's were occupying* the mind of the 
Commander-in-Chief, a spirited affair was going* on in 
another part of the field. About noon, the enemy 
was observed mustering in considerable streng'th 
upon the heights to the southward of the camp, and 
displaying several banners. They were a body of 
fanatical Mussulmen, termed c Ghazees/ or Defenders 
of the Faith, whose enthusiasm had been enlisted by 
Dost Mahomed against the Kaffir, or infidel English, 
and their renegade king*, as the Shah was represented 
to them. Their position commanded his Majesty's 
camp ; and it was evident from their movements that 
they were about to pour down in that direction, as if 



04 

their animosity were chiefly directed against him. The 
whole of the Shah's horse, supported by the lancers, 
and a regiment of Bengal cavalry, moved out imme- 
diately with two guns to oppose them. The enemy had 
already begun to descend into the plain, when they 
were met by the Shah's cavalry, under Captain Mcolson, 
and driven back with some loss, leaving one of their 
standards in our hands. 

u Capt. Outram, one of the bravest and most active 
officers in the service, who, whenever any out-of-the- 
way duty was to be performed, seemed always ready 
in a moment to undertake it, and has since gained so 
much distinction in connection with the affairs of 
Sind, arrived at the scene of action just previous to 
the occurrence of this incident. Finding no other 
European officer on the spot, he prevailed on a body of 
the Shah's horse to accompany him round the hills in 
the enemy's rear, where he stationed them, so as to 
prevent the latter retreating. Intimidated by this 
manoeuvre, and the repulse they had met with, the 
Ghazees ascended the heights beyond the reach of the 
horse ; and Capt. Outram meeting at this moment a 
small detachment of native infantry and matchlockmen 
under an English officer, proposed to him an immediate 
attempt to force the enemy from their new position. 
They ascended the rocks in gallant style, Capt. Outram 
at their head, advancing steadily under a galling fire ; 
and at length, step by step, attained the topmost peak, 
over which floated the Ghazee consecrated banner of 
green and white, which was supposed to confer invin- 
cibility upon its followers. At sight of this, the whole 
party rushed forward, cheering vociferously. The 



65 

standard-bearer was brought to the ground by a 
chance shot ; the sacred standard itself fell into our 
hands ; and the hopeless Ghazees fled panic-stricken at 
the loss of their charmed banner^ and its inefficacy to 
protect them. The loss on our part in this affray was 
about 20 killed and wounded \ the Affghans lost be- 
tween 30 and 40, and about 50 of them were made 
prisoners."* 

On the 30th of July, the Army resumed its march 
towards Cabool ; elate with the prospect of giving* 
and receiving* some hard blows \ for it was generally 
believed that Dost Mahommed would venture battle. 
But the Ameer, discovering' that his troops had been 
tampered with,f saw that resistance would be. vain- and 
at the head of about 3 ; 000 followers, who still clung* to 
him in his adversity, he fled in the direction of 
Bameean. His flight was reported in Camp on the 
3rd August : u and/' — writes the u Officer of high rank 
in the Indian Army," "the intelligence beino- fullv 
confirmed, it was resolved to send in immediate pursuit 
of him * and the service being* one requiring both talent 

* " History of the War in Afghanistan, Edited by C. Nash, 
Esq., p. 162." See also "Kennedy's Narrative," "Kaye's History" — 
the " Narrative of the March and Operations of the Army of the 
Indus, by Colonel Hough, Judge Advocate General of the Bengal 
Column," &c, &c. To save unnecessary annotation, the compiler 
will henceforth abstain from citing more than the authorities actually 
quoted. Suffice it to say, that every writer who has undertaken to 
illustrate our operations in Afghanistan has, more or less fully, 
adverted to the services rendered by Outram. In addition to the 
writers cited mav be added Colonel Havelock, in his " Narrative of 
the Afghanistan War." Dr. James Atkinson, the Medical Chief 
of the Bengal Division in his " Expedition into Afghanistan," &c. 

t By Shah Sooja. 

F 



66 



and darings Captain Outram seemed, as a matter of 
course, the officer to be selected to command the pur- 
suing' party." 

Five hundred Affg'han horsemen, and a small party 
of our own Hindostanee Cavalry, were placed under 
Outranks command ; and twelve officers volunteered 
to accompany him, — all, as Mr. Kaye truly desig-- 
nates them, u bold riders and dashing- soldiers." 
"And if," adds the same historian, "the success of 
this expedition had depended on the zeal of the 
officers, Dost Mahommed would have been brought 
back a prisoner to the British Camp ; for never did 
a finer set of men leap into their saddles flushed 
with the thought of the stirring- work before them. 
But when they set out in pursuit of the fallen Ameer, 
a traitor rode with them, intent on turning- to very 
nothing-ness all their chivalry and devotion."* 

This traitor was "Hadjee Khan Kakur, a man 
notorious throughout the country for his unparalleled 
treachery. In early life he had been nothing- more 
than a humble melon-vender; but he was a man of 
enterprise and courag-e, and had raised himself to the 
highest rank by his crafty talents — invariably changing* 
sides, when his interest prompted him to do so. He 
had intrigued even in favour of the heretic Sikhs during 
their hostilities with Dost Mahommed, and afterwards 

* Vol. I., p. 455. The following- is a list of the gallant little 
band: — Captains Wheler, Troup, Lawrence, Backhouse, Christie, 
Erskine, Tayler, and Trevor; Lieutenants Broadfoot, Hogg, and 
Ryves ; and Dr. Worral, men most of whom were destined, ere 
long, to signalize themselves, some by feats of military prowess, 
others by their administrative and diplomatic talents, some both as 
soldiers and as diplomatists. 



67 



quitted the service of that chief to join the rulers of 
Candahar against him. Upon the approach of our 
armies to Candahar, he again changed sides, and de- 
serted with all his followers to the cause of Shah 
Shooja, for which piece of well-timed service he received 
a thousand pounds from us. But nothing could secure 
the fidelity of this designing* chief, who seemed to love 
treachery for its very sake ; and upon our march to 
Grhiznee he hung aloof in the most suspicious manner, 
evidently waiting, as was afterwards proved, to see the 
result of our operations upon that fortress, in the hope 
that our defeat would give him another opportunity of 
changing his party. Our glorious success, however, 
confirmed his wavering fidelity for the moment, and 
the day after the fall of Ghiznee, he arrived at the 
British camp with congratulations, and protestations 
of his earnest attachment to our cause."* 

u How," writes Dr. Kennedy, — "how it fell that he 
was allowed to remain in the rear at so critical a mo- 
ment, I know not ; but had he been served as the 
sixty-five prisoners had been on the evening of the 
22nd, there seems every reason to believe that Captain 
Outram, who set the Army in motion by procuring at 
Bhooj and Kurrachee the camels requisite for our 
move from the Hujamry, would have closed the cam- 
paign by the capture of Dost Mahommed." 

But Hadjee Khan, instead of "being served as the 
sixty-five prisoners,"! had been taken again into the 
royal favour; and to give him an opportunity of 

* History of the War in Affg-hanistan, by an Officer of high rank, 
p. 188. 

f i. e., put to death. 



68 



proving* his fidelity, he was directed to act as Outram's 
guide : a duty for which the King* conceived him to be 
peculiarly qualified, from his having* once been Go- 
vernor of JBameean. 

"The pursuit of Outram was bold, active, and per- 
severing*. He followed the fugitive from the 3rd to 
the 9th Aug*ust, on which day the Ameer crossed in 
his flight the Affg*han frontier at Syghan, thirty miles 
beyond Bamian. The British troops endured the 
greatest privations, having* lived on parched corn for 
several days, their horses picking* up, at the same time, 
scanty and indifferent forag*e, in the small spots of 
cultivation in a mountainous tract. Holding* cheap 
these difficulties, Captain Outram pursued his arduous 
course from Sheikhabad, across the Pug'hman range, 
to Goda, Soofyd Kadir, Joort, and Kurzar* thence 
he tracked the footsteps of the Ameer by Kaloo, up 
the tremendous passes of Hajee Guk and Shootur 
Gurdun to Bamian, leaving* close on his rig*ht the 
awful eminences of Kohi Baber, twenty thousand feet 
in heig*ht. 

a But all his laudable endeavours and intentions were 
frustrated by the tricks and subterfug-es of Hadjee 
Khan. It very soon became evident that nothing* was 
further from the thoughts of this accomplished traitor 
than to aid in the capture of his former master. His 
excuses were varied and endless. At one time he 
urged the inability of his troops to proceed at so rapid 
a pace ; at another, he permitted them to roam over 
the country in search of plunder, and then lamented 
their absence. Perpetually he urged upon the con- 
sideration of the bold leader of the chace the formidable 



69 



force, amounting- to full fifteen hundred men, which 
Dost Mahommed Khan, after seeing* his ranks thinned 
by desertion, still retained about him. Though be- 
lieved to be intimately acquainted with the roads, yet, 
between Soofyd Kadir and Joort, he suffered the de- 
tachment to be led into a defile in the mountains, from 
which there was no egress, and where they were obliged 
to dismount on a frosty night, and sit by their horses 
until the dawn enabled them to retrace their footsteps. 
He encouraged Captain Outram to believe that it was 
his intention to effect the detention of the Barukzye by 
raising* the Hazaru tribes in his rear, and under this 
pretext, urg*ed him to slacken his pace. But when he 
found that Outranks sagacity and determination were 
proof against privations, fatigue, entreaties, and every 
artifice, he at length threw off the mask so far as to 
tell him that he must not reckon on the aid of his 
Affg*han troops if he attacked Dost Mahommed con- 
trary to the advice of his guide, and that it would 
not be surprising* if they should turn against the 
British in the melee. In one of the numerous alter- 
cations between Captain Outram and the Hadjee, the 
latter used the remarkable expressions which will be 
long* remembered against him. c I am hated in Aff- 
ghanistan on account of my friendship for the Eng'- 
lish. / am, next to the king, the most unpopular 
man in the country?"* 

u Ag*ain and again/' writes Mr. Kaye, " there was the 
same contention between the chivalrous earnestness of 
the British Officer, and the foul treachery of the Affghan 

* Colonel Havelock's " Narrative of the Afghanistan War/' p. 
155. 



70 



Chief. At last, on the 9th August, they reached Ba- 
meean, where Hadjee Khan had repeatedly declared 
that Dost Mahommed would halt, only to learn that 
the fugitives were that morning- to be at Syghan, nearly 
thirty miles in advance. The Ameer was pushing on 
with increased rapidity ; for the sick Prince,* who 
had been carried in a litter, was transferred to the 
back of an elephant ; and his escape was now almost 
certain. The treachery of Hadjee Khan had done 
^ts work. Outram had been restricted in his oper- 
ations to the limits of the Shall s dominions, — and 
the Ameer had now passed the borders. Further pur- 
suit; indeed, would have been hopeless. The horses of 
our cavalry were exhausted by over-fatigue, and want 
of food. They were unable any longer to continue 
their forced marches. The game, therefore, was up. 
Dost Mahommed had escaped. Hadjee Khan Kakur 
had saved the Ameer, but he had sacrificed himself. 
He had over-reached himself in his career of treachery, 
and was now to pay the penalty of detection. Outram 
officially reported the circumstance of the Hadjee's 
conduct, which had baffled all his best efforts — efforts 
which he believed would have been crowned with suc- 
cess ; and the traitor, on his return to Cabool, was ar- 
rested by orders of the Shah. Other proofs of his 
treason were readily found, and he was sentenced to 
end a life of adventurous vicissitude, as a state pri- 
soner in the provinces of Hindostan."f 

Though unsuccessful, the pursuit of Dost Mahommed 

* His son, the subsequently famous Akbar Khan. 
• f Kaye's " History of the War in Afghanistan," vol. i. 
pp. 458—9. 



71 



has generally been regarded as one of the most brilliant 
and chivalric passages in the Affghan War. And rarely 
has a nobler instance of heroism and devotion been 
afforded than when, on the sixth evening of the chase, 
in the belief that they were close on the heels of the 
fugitive King, the thirteen British Officers — with a 
self-convicted traitor for their guide, and surrounded 
by 500 Affghan horsemen ready to obey his treacherous 
behests — in calm council agreed to unite their efforts 
on the morrow ; and, charging in the centre of their 
small body of Hindostanee followers, each to direct 
his individual attack against the person of Dost Ma- 
hommed. a It being* evident/' — thus runs the entry 
in Outranks diary, — "it being evident that all the 
Affghans, on both sides, will turn against us, unless 
we are immediately successful, this plan of attack 
appears to afford the only chance of escape to those 
who may survive 5 and it is an object of paramount 
importance to effect the destruction of the Ameer, 
rather than to permit his escape."* 

" Those who may survive ! " Not one of the gal- 
lant band but must have felt assured that the sun 
which was to light him on the morrow's journey 
would shed its setting* beams on his mangled corpse. 
Yet, u they passed the night cheerfully and merrily, 
though they had little to eat, nothing whatever to 
drink, and no other bed to lie on than their sheep- 
skin cloaks."f 

* Vide Diary in Outram's " Rough Notes of the Campaign in 
Sind and AfFghanistan," p. 130. 

f " History of the War in Afghanistan/' by an Officer of high 
rank in the Indian Army, p. 190. 



72 



On his return to Cabool, Captain Outram, seeing 
that the war was virtually terminated for the present, 
accepted the Envoy's renewed offer of Political em- 
ployment, on the understanding- that, in the event of 
further military operations taking- place, he should be 
permitted to participate in them. And it was not 
long* till — 

"The active services of the gallant Captain Outram 
had been again called into request. Shortly after the 
arrival of the Shah at Cabool, certain insurrectionary 
movements among the Ghilzie tribes attracted his at- 
tention, and an expedition was resolved on, to attempt 
their reduction. A cold-blooded murder had also been 
perpetrated upon the person of a British officer, Colonel 
Herring 1 , of tne 37th Native Infantry, by a party of 
these desperate marauders. Capt. Outram was, there- 
fore, placed in command of a body of troops, British 
and Affghan, and commissioned to depose the refractory 
Ghilzie Chiefs, — to punish the people of Maroof for 
their horrible and wanton destruction of a Kafila of 
Hindoos in the previous May, — and to avenge the as- 
sassination of Colonel Herring. He started on this 
expedition on the 7th of September, and after several 
days of indefatigable exertion, he discovered that the 
perpetrators of the last-named atrocity belonged to a 
tribe of freebooters, called Kaujuks, whose stronghold 
was situated some distance to the north-east of 
Grhuznee. 

" On the 21st Captain Outram made a night march, 
in order to surprise these banditti, and arrived at break 
of day at a deep dell occupied by the gang. His dis- 
positions were made so skilfully that he succeeded in 



73 



completely surrounding* them ; but they defended them- 
selves with the greatest obstinacy, and maintained their 
position until all their ammunition was nearly expended, 
when, upon our men rushing* in upon them from every 
quarter, they were compelled to throw down their arms. 
Sixteen of their number were left dead upon the spot, 
and one hundred and twelve were taken prisoners. 
Not one was permitted to escape \ and forty-six of the 
most ferocious were immediately transmitted to Cabul 
for execution. 

"All their camels and property also fell into the 
hands of Captain Outram's party, the former bearing- 
marks by which they were discovered to have been 
stolen from our troops. He fulfilled his other instruc- 
tions with equal celerity and success, blowing* up the 
fort of Maroof^ which was found to be a place of re- 
markable strength, and taking* several of the people 
prisoners."* 

For these services the British Plenipotentiary, from 
time to time, communicated to Captain Outram the 
warm commendations of Shah Sooja. 

Thus, on the 6th October, he conveyed "his Ma- 
jesty's unqualified approbation, evincing* as they (Cap- 
tain Outram's operations) do, the hig*hest degree of 
zeal, energy, and prudence." t n t fte 17th of the 
same month, his Majesty was " pleased to express 

* History of the War in Affg'hanistan, edited by C. Nash, Esq., 
p. 204. 

t Captain Outram was, at the same time, instructed to express 
his Majesty's admiration of the spirit of the officers who co-operated 
with them — special commendation being" bestowed on " the gallant 
conduct of Major McLaren and his detachment." 



74 



himself in terms of high gratification at the energy 
and zeal displayed by Captain Outram, in operations 
by which the power and influence of the rebel Ghilzie 
Chiefs have been completely and for ever destroyed." 
In reference to the destruction of Maroof, Shah Sooja, 
on the 7th November, desired the British Envoy to 
sig'nify his Majesty's " entire approbation of Captain 
Outranks conduct, and to convey his warmest thanks 
for this additional instance of zeal and devotion dis- 
played in his cause." And soon after, in transmitting 
to Captain Outram, by his Majesty's order, the deco- 
ration of the Dourannee Order of Knighthood, the 
Envoy wrote as follows : — 

u I am desired by his Majesty Shah Soojah Ool 
Moolk, to convey to you his acknowledgment of the 
zeal, gallantry, and judgment displayed by you in 
several instances during* the past year, whilst employed 
in his Majesty's immediate service. 

" His Majesty desires to specify three instances in 
which your merit and exertions were particularly 
conspicuous. 

" First, on the occasion of your gallantly placing 
yourself at the head of his Majesty's troops engaged 
in dispersing a large body of rebels, who had taken up 
a threatening position immediately above his Majesty's 
encampment, on the day previous to the storm of 
Ghiznee. 

u Secondly, on the occasion of your commanding the 
party sent in pursuit of Dost Mahommed Khan, when 
your zealous exertions would in all probability have 
been crowned with success, but for the treachery of 
your AfFghan associates. 



75 



a And, thirdly, for the series of able and successful 
operations conducted under your superintendence, 
which ended in the subjection or dispersion of certain 
rebel Ghilzie and other tribes, and which have had the 
effect of tranquillizing- the whole line of country be- 
tween Cabul and Candahar, where plunder and anarchy 
had before prevailed/* &c. &c. 

Nor did the Governor-General of India fail to 
express his cordial approbation of each of Captain 
Outranks proceeding's. 

Having* fulfilled the duties assig-ned to him, Outram 
hastened^ by permission of the Envoy, to join the co- 
lumn under General (now Sir Thomas) Willshire, then 
proceeding- to punish Mihrab Khan of Khelat, for 
certain acts of hostility imputed to him and his sub- 
jects during- the advance of Sir John Keane's Army. 
On the 30th October, he arrived in General Willshire's 
Camp 3 and offering- his services, in the capacity of 
Aide-de-camp, to that distinguished Officer, accom- 
panied him to Khelat, which was carried by storm, 
on the 13th of November. The following- account of 
Outranks performances on this occasion is derived 
from Mr. Nash's interesting' volume : — 

"Everything- now being- in readiness, the three 
columns of attack steadily advanced, preceded by the 
artillery, which opened a cannonade upon the enemy 
with such admirable precision, that they were driven 
from their position long* before the Infantry had 
reached the heig-hts. The Khelat ees were observed 
endeavouring- to draw off their g*uns ; and General 
Willshire sent Captain Outram, who had bravely 
volunteered upon the expedition, with orders to the 



76 



column which was nearest to the gate, to pursue the 
fugitives, and, if possible, to enter the fort with them — 
but, at all events, to prevent their taking* in the gams. 
The Captain overtook the advancing* column, and gal- 
loping* on, reached the redoubt just at the moment that 
the enemy were vacating* it, and eng aged in attempting 
to carry off one of their pieces of ordnance. He dashed 
forward, calling* upon Captain Eaitt, of the Queen's 
Royals, to accompany him with his party, and succeeded 
in compelling the enemy to abandon their g*un, although 
they were too late to enter the fort with them. The 
whole of our troops were now upon the heights, and 
the guns were in process of being dragged up. As 
soon as the latter could be got into position, two of 
them were directed to play upon the towers command- 
ing the gateway \ two others opened tire upon the gate 
itself ; while the remaining two were stationed upon the 
road leading direct to the gate, for the purpose of 
blowing it in, which was effected in the course of a few 
discharges. Upon observing this, General Willshire 
rode down the hill, and gave the signal for the advance 
of the storming party. The troops instantly rose from 
their cover, and rushed in ; those under command of 
Major Penirycuick, being the nearest, were the first to 
gain an entrance, headed by their gallant leader. 
They were quickly followed by the rest of the column, 
who pushed in to their support under a heavy fire 
from the works, and from the interior, the enemy 
making a most determined resistance, and disputing 
every inch of ground up to the walls of the inner citadel. 
Meanwhile the General despatched Captain Outram, 
who had been actively employed the whole time in 



77 



various parts of the scene, with a Company of Her 
Majesty's 17th Foot,* and a portion of the 31st Bengal 
Native Infantry, f to storm the heights, and secure the 
gate on the opposite side of the fort. This movement 
was most spiritedly performed. They ascended the 
rocks, dispersed a party of matchlockmen occupying* 
their summit, then rushed down again to the fort, 
driving in a party of the enemy with such precipitation, 
that they had not time to secure the gate behind them, 
possession of which was thus obtained, and the escape 
of the garrison entirely cut off. At this moment they 
were joined by another party, under Major Deshon, 
who had been sent by the eastern face of the fort with 
two guns, to blow open this gate also, if necessary, as 
well as the gate of the inner citadel. The first having* 
been gained as described, the guns were placed in 
position for bombarding the latter, and their tire was 
kept up with destructive effect until our soldiers forced 
an entrance into the place. A furious contest now en- 
sued between the besiegers and the besieged. Mihrab 
Khan himself headed his men, and fought with des- 
perate valour, although he had previously attempted 
to make his escape • but he was at length slain by a 
shot in the neck, from an unknown hand. Many of 
his chiefs fell with him, and about four hundred of the 
garrison. In a few minutes more, the British flag 
was waving above the ramparts of the captured for- 
tress of Khelat." 

General Willshire, when acknowledging the ser- 
vices rendered by Captain Outram, expressed himself 

* Under Captain Darby. 

t Commanded by Major Western. 



78 



as u greatly indebted to that officer for the zeal and 
ability with which he has performed various duties 
that I (Gen. W.) have required of him, upon other 
occasions as well as the present." 

"Immediately after the fall of Khelat, Captain 
Outram was commissioned to carry the glorious tidings 
to Bombay, in doing* which he undertook one of those 
daring* adventures which, from their very danger, give 
so much interest and excitement to Indian warfare. 
He resolved to disguise himself, and make his way, by 
the most direct route, which lay through the heart of 
the enemy's country, to Sonmeanee, the seaport of 
Lus, and proceed thence by water to Kurrachee, and 
so on to his destination. 

u Having* accordingly disguised himself as a holy 
man, he left the British camp in the dead of the night, 
accompanied by two Syuds, who had agreed to go 
with him, together with two armed attendants of 
theirs, and one servant of his own. They overtook on 
their route many of the fugitives from Khelat, one 
party of whom, consisting of the families of Mihrab 
Khan's brother, and his principal minister, Mahommed 
Hoosain Khan, recognized the two Syuds as old ac- 
quaintances. It happened, unfortunately, that Captain 
Outram was actually arrayed in a dress taken from 
Mahommed Khan's own wardrobe ; but by a skilful pre- 
servation of his assumed character, he managed to 
escape detection. On another occasion, his companions 
having reason to suspect they should meet with certain 
persons it would be most prudent to avoid, at Nal, a 
village in their route, the party refrained from halting- 
there, and rested in a jungle some distance beyond, 



79 



while one of the Syuds, with the two armed attendants, 
went into the village to procure grain for their horses. 
On the return of this party, however, they unfortun- 
ately missed Captain Outranks place of concealment, 
and he waited in anxious expectation till evening' with- 
out seeing* them. The other Syud then became so 
uneasy, that he went to the village to endeavour to 
learn some tidings of the absent party, leaving the 
Captain alone with his servant to await their return. 
Time passsed away, and Captain Outram began to be 
apprehensive that his presence in the neighbourhood 
had been discovered, and that his companions were de- 
tained on purpose to induce him to come in search of 
them. He had now to consider what was best to be 
done. The whole of his money and provisions were 
with the absentees, and destitute as he was, ignorant, 
too, of the language, and without a guide, he felt his 
murder was inevitable at the hands of the very first 
Beloochee who should fall in with him, and detect his 
disguise. He therefore resolved to proceed to the vil- 
lage, and take the chance of his character as a British 
Officer protecting him from injury, or, if that should 
fail, he hoped that the influence of his Syud friends 
might be of some benefit to him. He sallied forth 
accordingly, from his hiding-place, but had not pro- 
ceeded far, when he fortunately fell in with the second 
Syud, who, having also missed their place of conceal- 
ment, had been a long while hunting for him. He 
brought the welcome news that the first party was 
safe ) but they having likewise missed the locality, had 
gone, under the impression that their companions had 
preceded them. At length, after a two hours' search 



80 



from village to village, the whole party met again ; 
and Captain Outram, anxious to be the first to com- 
municate to Government the news of the brilliant affair 
of Khelat, they continued their journey throughout the 
night, without once halting-. At length, after escaping- 
numerous dangers, and undergoing various fatigues, 
now urging forward their steeds to escape some impend- 
ing evil, frequently remaining all da} r and night in the 
saddle, now lying down to snatch an hour or two of 
sleep, with their little property beneath them, and their 
horses' bridles in their hands, to be prepared for a sur- 
prise, the gallant Outram and his little party reached 
Sonmeanee. He then took boat for Kurrachee, whence 
he proceeded to Bombay, and afterwards learned that 
he had had a most narrow escape \ for he had been 
discovered and pursued by the son of one of the chiefs 
slain at Khelat, who only missed him at Sonmeanee 
by a few hours."* 

Captain Outram received the thanks, both of the 
Bombay and of the Supreme Government, for "the 
very interesting and valuable documents" which he 
placed before them, a being a sketch and description 
of the route, and narrative of that officer's Journey 
through Beloochistan, from Khelat to Sonmeanee;" — 
a route a the practicability or otherwise of which for 
the passag'e of troops, General Willshire had deemed 
it a great object to ascertain." 

* War in Afghanistan, edited by C. Nash, Esq., p. 210. This 
journey of 360 miles, Outram (who with his saddle bag-s weighed 
16 stone) performed on an Affg'han pony, under 13 hands, in seven 
and a half days. During- this period, he was 111 hours on the 
hardy little creature's back. 



81 



For his services at Khelat, Captain Outram received 
the brevet rank of Major, in November, 1839. But 
as he shared this honour with others, who had not 
had the good fortune to enjoy so many opportunities 
of distinguishing* themselves as fell to his lot, the 
Secret Committee intimated to the Bombay Govern- 
ment that they had recommended his promotion to 
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.* This arrangement 
was understood to be so definitely fixed, that the 
Bombay Government, in expressing' to Major Outram 
their " gratification in perceiving that the Honourable 
the Secret Committee so hig'hly appreciated his past 
services" addressed him officially as " Lieutenant- 
Colonel Outram," f and Lord Auckland, in an auto- 
graph letter dated 30th July, 1840, wrote as fol- 
lows : — 

a I am glad to know by my letters from England, 
that your promotion (to Lieut.-Colonel), thoug'h not 
yet announced on the 2nd June, was determined upon ; 
and I heartily rejoice in your well-earned honour, and 
congTatulate you on it." 

Had the u well-earned" promotion in question been 
bestowed on Major Outram, that Officer would now 
have been entitled to command a Division of the Bom- 
bay Army. For, in accordance with the rule observed 
in distributing honours for the Sind battles, he would 
in 1843 have been made a full (instead of a Lieut.) 
Colonel, an Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, &c. &c. And 
owing- to the exhaustion of the list of Bombay Major- 
Generals, at least one Colonel whose commission dates 

* Despatch to Bombay Government, dated 29th Feb. 1840. 
t Letter dated 17th April, 1840. • 

G 



82 



later than 1848, is in command of a Division, with 
the rank of Brigadier General. 

There cannot be a doubt that the non-fulfilment of 
the promise, was the result of oversight. And Major 
Outram has been repeatedly urged by his friends to 
apply for the honour which it is obvious his Sovereign 
intended to bestow, and the intended bestowal of which 
had been communicated by her Majesty's Ministers to 
her Representative in the East. 



83 



V. 

SERVICES AS POLITICAL AGENT FOR LOWER SIND. 

1840—1841. 

In January 1840, the Governor-General of India 
(Lord Auckland), in recognition of Major Outranks 
past services, nominated him Political Agent for Lower 
Sind, in succession to Sir Henry Potting*er. And the 
nomination received the expressed approbation of the 
Secret Committee, who recorded their entire " con- 
currence in the praises bestowed on Major Out ram." 

Many and important objects occupied Major Out- 
ram's attention, during* the first few months of his 
intercourse with the Court of Hvdrabad. These it is 
unnecessary to detail ; but that he satisfactorily per- 
formed what was required of him is sufficiently proved 
by the fact that, on the 2nd October 1840, Lord Auck- 
land intimated to him that, should the failing* health of 
Mr. Ross Bell " incapacitate him for the discharge of 
the important duties attached to his office, it was his 
Lordship's desire that Major Outram should assume 
charge of them, with the full authority that has been 
committed to that officer." 

The compliment thus paid him, derived increased 
value from the circumstance of Lord Auckland being* 
fully aware that Major Outram had, from the first, 



84 



strongly condemned his Affg*han Policy, and predicted 
its disastrous issue. Mr. Ross Bell, as Political Agent 
for Beloochistan and Upper Sind ; was vested with 
vast powers and responsibilities ; but to Major Outram 
it was resolved to confide even a wider jurisdiction 
than that over which Mr. Bell's authority had ex- 
tended. For, in addition to that gentleman's ap- 
pointment, he was to retain the Political control of 
Lower Sind. 

Within two months from the date of this gratifying- 
proof of the Governor-General's confidence, Major 
Outram had an opportunity of affording his Lordship 
an affecting illustration of the success which had 
attended his firm but conciliatory diplomacy at II y- 
drabad. 

Until it suited the purposes of the Indian Govern- 
ment to encourage jealousies amongst the Princes 
of Lower Sind, Meer Noor Mahommed had always 
been regarded and treated as the principal Ameer. 
And, up to the day of his death (1st December, 
1840), he remained the virtual Ruler of Sind : the 
other Ameers deferring to his judgment, in all matters 
of general and foreign policy. It was, therefore, but 
natural that the feelings of resentment with which 
he viewed the abrupt and invasive entrance into 
his country, of a British Army, should be enhanced 
by the marked manner in which the British officials 
(in obedience to their instructions) were compelled to 
avoid any recognition of his status, as a Chief Ameer." 
And nothing was more calculated to exasperate this 
Prince than the demission to his Court, as British 
^Representative, of the Officer who, one short year 



85 



before, had appeared before him to certify Sir John 
Keane's determination to storm and sack his capital, 
unless prompt acceptance were given to a harsh, and 
spoliative arrangement, in utter violation of those 
solemn compacts in virtue of which we had obtained 
permission to establish a a Residency" in Sind. 

But so successful was the conciliatory demeanour of 
Major Outram, that Noor Mahommed soon recognized 
in him a friend, worthy of a brother's love. The 
Ameer, Mr. Lushington writes, "had of late (that is 
for some time previous to his death) identified his own 
interests with those of the British ; and the last act 
of his life (affectingiy told in the correspondence), 
was to commend his two sons and successors to the 
protection of the British Resident (Major Outram), for 
whom he felt a strong' personal friendship : a commis- 
sion which that noble soldier fulfilled, and more than 
fulfilled. ^You are to me as my brother Nusseer 
Khan/ said the Ameer to him in words stamped with 
the sincerity of death. . . c From the days of Adam, 
no one has known so great truth and friendship as I 
have found in you. ? — To have merited this touching- 
testimony from the rude and distrustful chieftain, was 
more than to be called by the Conqueror of Sind, 
( the Bayard of the Indian Army' /"* 

" His Highness" — thus Outram officially reported 
a previous interview — a hailing me as a brother, put 
his arms round me, and held me in his embrace a few 
minutes, until I laid him quietly down. So feeble 
and emaciated had the Ameer become, that this exer- 

* "A Great Country's little Wars/' by C. Lushington, Esq., 
p. 213. 



86 

tion quite exhausted him, and it was some minutes af- 
terwards, before he could speak, when beckoning* his 
brother Meer Nusseer Khan, and his youngest son 
Meer Hoossein Ali, to the bedside, he took a hand of 
each and placed them in mine sayings ( You are their 
father and brother : you will protect them' ; to which 
I replied in general, but warm terms of personal 
friendship, and that I trusted his Highness himself 
would long- live to guide and support them. But this 
the Ameer had evidently gnven up all hope of : for he 
appeared to regret that he had given Dr. Owen the 
trouble of coming so far, though very grateful for the 
prompt manner in which his wishes had been attended 
to." 

A second visit was paid the same evening to the 
dying Prince. In the mean time the affecting incident 
of the morning had been communicated to the ladies 
of the Harem ; " and," — thus reported Outram — 

" In the course of the interview, Meer Hoossein Ali, 
the Ameer's younger son, came from the inner apart- 
ments and whispered in the ear of his father, who 
smiled, and informed me that the Khanum (the mother 
of his sons) sent to say she hailed me as her brother 
with much gratification, to which I made a suitable 
acknowledgment. On inquiry, afterwards I learned 
that this is considered an extraordinary proof of friend- 
ship, such as has never heretofore been displayed except 
to the nearest relations."* 

Outram requested permission to accept the guar- 
dianship of the boy Hoossein Ali thus solemnly con- 
fided to his protection by the dying' Prince. Lord 

* 1st Sind Blue Book, p. 267, 



87 



Auckland^ ever swift to obey his generous impulses, 
sanctioned the arrangement \ and of all the many dis- 
tressing* incidents connected with the Conquest of 
Sind, there is not one more painful than the viola- 
tion of the obligations which this arrangement in- 
volved. Beyond being a spectator at the battle of 
Meanee, no charge of any kind could be brought 
against the youthful Hoossein, who was only sixteen 
years of age. Outram pleaded for him as his son by 
adoption • procured his release ; and, as he and all 
who were present at the conference understood, his 
pardon also. But, soon after Outram's departure, the 
lad was torn from his aged mother, added to the 
number of the other Royal Captives, and sentenced to 
exile. a My mother," — wrote the unhappy youth, in 
one of his fruitless petitions — a my mother, worn out 
with years, cannot have long to live, and the few re- 
maining years of her life will be shortened by sepa- 
ration from me. My betrothed, too, and her parents 
will grieve for me." " When," — thus did the broken- 
hearted mother appeal to Outram — " when Meer 
Noor Mahommed was alive . . he besought your 
favour on behalf of his sons ; he regarded you as 
a brother ) and he assured me that in the hour of dis- 
tress you would not withdraw your protection from 
me, I have no one to look to but yourself. Whatever 
crime has been committed by my sons, I beseech your 
forgiveness for the sake of God and pity. I have 
nothing to hope for but through your compassion. I 
hope you will look to the tomb of Meer Noor Mahom- 
med, and show mercv to his sons." How Outram 
responded to her call ; and what the faithful per- 



88 

formance of his vow has caused him, in calumny, 
and persecution, and pecuniary loss, the readers of 
this little volume require not to be told. But this is 
a digression. 

Prior to Noor Mahommed's death, an army was 
ordered to assemble in Upper Sind, in consequence 
of the unsettled state of the neighbouring countries. 
As active operations were anticipated, Major Outram 
had sought permission to tender his services in a mili- 
tary capacity, to the General commanding*. And the 
Governor-General, a looking to Major Outranks local 
knowledge, and high personal character," thought that 
his services would be "of such infinite value as to 
compensate for the temporary loss of his presence in 
Lower Sind." But the Bombay Government deemed 
it u not expedient that he should leave Hydrabad, where 
his services at that moment were most useful." In 
this decision the Governor-General was induced to 
concur; the Secret Committee entertained a similar 
opinion; and Outram was, for the time, denied any 
further opportunity of earning distinction in the field. 

But though himself precluded from participating in 
Military operations, he took, in concert with Brigadier 
Farquharson, prompt and successful measures for 
strengthening the hands of Major General Brookes, 
who commanded in Upper Sind. Both Major Outram 
and Brigadier Farquharson received gratifying com- 
mendations from the Indian authorities, and the Secret 
Committee, for the efforts they had made to rein- 
force General Brookes' Army. And it may not be 
superfluous to add that, in the prosecution of these 
efforts, Major Outram was the first to demonstrate the 



89 



practicability of bringing* Troops into Sind by land. 
On his own responsibility, he drew cavalry from 
Guzerat, across the desert of the Thurr, by way of 
Jeysulmeer ) and infantry and artillery from Katty- 
war, across the Runn of Cutch. 

Amongst the duties which, in the opinion of the 
Government^ had required the uninterrupted presence 
of Major Outram at Hydrabad, was the settlement of 
the conflicting- claims of the sons of the late Meer 
Noor Mahommed. In reference to these, the Secret 
Committee pronounced Major Outram "to have 
acted with his usual sag'acity." And, in the same 
despatch^ they observed that " the documents relating' 
to the renunciation by the Ameer of Meerpore, of the 
right to levy tolls on the Indus, furnished additional 
proofs of the zeal and ability with which Major Out- 
ram discharges his important functions." 

The foreg'oing* pag*es have borne ample testimony 
to the esteem and confidence in which Major Outram 
was held by the successive Governors of Bombay — 
Mr. Elphinstone, Sir John Malcolm, Sir Robert 
Grant, and Mr. Farish ; and here may be appropri- 
ated introduced an extract from a farewell letter ad- 
dressed to him, on the 20th April 1841, by Sir James 
Carnac, who was Mr. Farish's successor in the Govern- 
ment of Bombav : — 

" I cannot bid adieu to this countrv, without bid- 
ding* you, if you will allow me the expression, an 
affectionate farewell. I shall always hail the day 
when we became acquainted, as one of the brightest 
spots in my career of life. I entertain for you the 
most sincere sentiments of regard and respect ; and 



90 



you will ever find me, I trust, when thinking- or 
speaking* of you and your valuable services, influenced 
strongly by these impressions. I foresee, please a kind 
Providence, a career before you which will give full 
scope for the display of all those eminent qualities 
with which you are endowed/' 



91 



VI. 

i 

SERVICES AS POLITICAL AGENT FOR THE WHOLE 
OF SIND AND BELOOCHISTAN, 

1841—1842. 

Mr. Ross Bell died in August, 1841. His death 
had been for some time expected j and as his office was 
in a state of great confusion, and our relations with 
Khelat pressed for immediate settlement, Major 
Outram had been requested to proceed to Quetta (in 
Northern Beloochistan, and at the top of the Bolan 
Pass) as soon after receiving* intimation of Mr. 
Bell's demise as he could, consistently with personal 
safety. 

The reader requires not to be told that, owing- to the 
intensity of the heat, and the deadly Simoom which 
blows over the Deserts dividing 1 Sind from Cutch 
Gundava, the journey from Sukkur to Dadur is one 
which not even the natives of the country will make 
between the beginning- of May and the end of Septem- 
ber, unless driven to it by absolute necessity. And 
equally unnecessary is it to say, that no one had ever 
dreamed of venturing- among- the wild tribes that oc- 
cupy the Bolan Pass without the protection of a 
strong- escort. But no sooner did Outram receive the 
tiding-s of Mr. Bell's death, than, reg-ardless of every 
consideration but the interests of the public service, 



92 



he started off on a dromedary, attended by one hardy 
servant similarly mounted; and in five days he ac- 
complished a journey which g-enerally occupied troops 
three weeks, at a season of the year when most men 
would have regarded an order to undertake it as little 
short of sentence of death. The following- extracts 
from Colonel Dennie's Journal, descriptive of a portion 
of the same journey, made in the beginning- of April, 
ere yet the heats had nearly attained their maximum, 
will give the reader some idea of the nature of Outram's 
suffering's, and the extent of the risk he incurred : — 

"We ascended from Dadur to that place (Quetta), 
througii the Bolan Pass, an elevation of between 5,000 
and 6,000 feet, having* previously traversed at its foot, 
a long*, dreadful, desert plain from Shikarpore to Dadur, 
of about 150 miles.* .... As for the heat, God be 
praised you can form no conception of it; / have 
escaped, and can only tell you that I shudder to look 

back at what I and those with me underwent 

Col. Thompson, who commanded one of the regiments 
of my Brig-ade, and who followed me a few days in 
the rear, died instantly in his tent ; and Lieut. Brady, 
H. M. 17th Foot, fell dead in the same manner, — their 
bodies turning- as black as charcoal. Between 50 and 
60 persons of another convoy were suffocated by the 
breath of this same deadly Simoom, which sweeps 
across the desert at intervals during* the hot season, 

dealing- destruction to all within its influence 

To give you a correct notion of the temperature, the 
thermometer stood, in the tent of a young- Officer, my 

* -From Dadur, at the bottom, to Quetta, beyond the summit of 
the Bolan Pass, the distance is between 70 and 80 miles. 



93 



Aide-de-camp, a smaller one than mine, and termed a 
hill tent, at 125 decrees ! "* 

Major Outranks first duty, after his arrival at Quetta, 
was to conciliate Nusseer Khan of Khelat. This fine 
young* Brahooee, the son and heir of the Prince who 
fell in November, 1839, had himself experienced much 
harsh treatment from the British. A fugitive wan- 
derer in his own territories, he had, until a week or 
two previous, resisted the advances of Colonel Stacy, 
the political officer to whom the affairs of Khelat had 
in the meantime been confided. And as he well knew 
the conspicuous part which Outram had taken in those 
operations which deprived him of a father, and gave 

* P. 56. Should these pages meet the eye of any Officer of 
the 6th Regiment N. I., he will be ready to testify that when 
Major Outram passed through Dadur, Colonel Woodhouse and his 
Officers could only obtain a snatch of sleep by drenching- their beds 
and shirts with water ; — that they sat at dinner wet with towels 
round their heads, and only maintained existence by constant 
punka-ing, and an almost constant imbibition of weak wine and 
water. Colonel Green, Major Hutt, and the Officers of the 21st 
Regt. who were at Dadur in the following year, must remember 
well that, in spite of the admirable mud-houses they had in the 
mean time built for themselves, their sufferings were not much less 
severe than those of their predecessors. And if such was the de- 
plorable condition of officers under cover, the reader may conceive 
what were the sensations experienced by Outram on his rapid 
journey. The Compiler of these Memoranda would sooner be 
blistered continuously for a fortnig'ht from head to foot than again 
endure the horrors (no other word suffices) he underwent between 
4 a. m. and 3 p. m. on the 3rd May, 1842, on rear-guard duty, in 
company with Captain Taylor and a troop of the 3rd Light 
Cavalry, on the march from Dadur to the first halting-ground in 
the Bolan Pass. And yet we were assured we had had but a 
" feeble imitation of the real Simoomish weather." 



94 



him a dismembered territory and a plundered Capital 
as his inheritance, the probabilities were decidedly 
against his being* speedily reconciled to the soldier in 
whose hands his destinies were now placed. But 
Outranks cordiality was irresistible. The Khan saw 
him, and loved him. His fears were allayed, his sus- 
picions discarded. For in the new Political Agent he 
discovered one to whom he could unreservedly un- 
bosom his sorrows, and freely communicate his wishes, 
in the full assurance that the former would receive genu- 
ine and soothing* sympathy, and that the latter, if not 
gratified, would, at least, obtain considerate attention. 

Taking* the young Khan to Khelat, and doing his 
best to invest the a progress" to the Capital with 
regal pomp, by inviting Brigadier England to accom- 
pany them with his Staff and a large military escort, 
Outram formally placed him in the seat of his 
ancestors. And he executed a treaty with him, in 
the names of Shah Sooja and the British Govern- 
ment, which was cordially approved and applauded by 
Lord Auckland ; as were all Outram's other measures 
for conciliating the Brahooees, whom the slaughter 
of 1839, and the sack of Khelat, had exasperated to 
the highest pitch. So successful were these measures, 
that the strongest personal attachment was soon 
felt towards Outram, not only by the Khan, but 
by all his Chiefs. And had it not been so, lament- 
able indeed would have been the position of England's 
and Nott's armies, in the dark days that were to 
follow.* 

* Not the slightest reference to this treaty, or the correspond- 
ence regarding it ; was suffered to appear in the Sind Blue Books. 



95 



By the condensation, under Major Outram, of offices 
previously independent of each other, the Government 
had effected a savings in salary of £370 per mensem. 
And hy the reduction of his office establishments, as 
well as by the substitution of arrangements more fa- 
vourable to Government for those which had obtained 
under his predecessor, Outram diminished the work- 
ing- expenses of his establishment by nearly £10,000 
per annum. 

" The zeal thus manifested for the interests of Go- 
vernment" was duly appreciated by the Governor- 
General 5 who applauded a the care and ability he had 
displayed, and the practical measures of economy he 
had effected, in the several arrangements considered 
and submitted." 

While reducing* the cost of his office establish- 
ments, Major Outram succeeded in increasing* their 
efficiency ; and, aided by his zealous and able assist- 
ants, he promised himself the gratification of extend- 
ing' and consolidating* the British influence in the 
Indus and trans-Indus States, and of securing- to 
them peace, order, and g*ood government, the develop- 
ment of their resources, and an enlargement of their 
commercial relations. 

But ere effect could be gfiven to his measures for 
the accomplishment of these objects, the Cabool In- 
surrection broke out \ there ensued a crisis unparalleled 
in the history of the Anglo-Indian Empire ; and on 
Major Outram and his assistants devolved labours and 
responsibilities which only those thoroughly conversant 
with the history of that eventful period can duly ap- 
preciate. 



96 



Emissaries poured forth from Cabool, proclaiming- a 
religious war ag'ainst the British. The ignorant and 
big'oted populations of Scinde and Beloochistan were 
called on, by the fealty they owed the Prophet, to 
enlist under his sacred banner ag'ainst the enemies of 
the faith. And to neutralize the effects of these fana- 
tical appeals \ to provide for the sustenance and safety 
of the weak and scattered military posts within their 
jurisdiction * to inspire confidence in quarters wherein 
panic threatened to consummate the very evils it ap- 
prehended; to aid in the retrieval of our tarnished 
honour by providing* our g*enerals with the means of 
prosecuting* a war of retribution ) and to do so throug'h 
the ag*ency of those whom we had wronged, and 
who were incited to rise ag'ainst us — such were the 
duties which Major Outram and his able staff were 
now called on to perform. 

In the very depth of our disasters, Lord Auckland 
was compelled to leave India, his term of Government 
having' expired. And the following* passag-e is ex- 
tracted from a letter which his Lordship addressed to 
Major Outram on the 20th of February 1842, on the 
eve of his departure : — 

u This is probably the last letter that I shall have 
to write to you, and I would take my leave of you 
with an assurance to you, that you have, from day to 
day, since your late appointment, added to that hig-h 
estimate with which I have long* regarded your cha- 
racter, and which led me to place confidence in you. 
It is mortifying- and g-alling* to me to feel that plans, 
which you had nearly brought to successful maturity, 
for g*reat improvement, for the consolidation of secu- 



97 



ritj and influence, for the happiness of the population 
of immense tracts, and for your own and our honor, — 

yd 7 

should be endangered by events of which our Military 
history has, happily, no parallel. You will, I know, 
do well in the storm ; and, I trust, that as far as the 
interests confided to you are concerned, you will 
enable us to weather it." 

Nor was his Lordship's confidence misplaced. Ma- 
jor Outram was at that time in Sind, a earnest 
amongst the earnest to retrieve our lost position in 
AfFghanistan, and active among-st the active to carry 
out the work of throwing* troops into the country 
which had witnessed our abasement."* And there 
are few, if any, who will take exception to the decla- 
ration made by Lord Auckland from his seat in Par- 
liament that, — 

u To no man in a public office was the public under 
greater obligations than to Major Outram. A more 
distinguished servant of the Government did not 
exist, nor one more eminent in a long' career." 

Owing* u to the promptitude and zeal with which 
Major Outram acted," the stores of which the Can- 
dahar Army stood in need, together with 3,000 
camels, were on the 10th of April pushed up the 
Bolan Pass. And unremitting* exertions continued 
to be made by him, and his assistants, to collect such 
further supplies, and means of carriage, as mig*ht leave 
no excuse for a persistence in the resolution so long* 
entertained by the Governor-General, of withdraw- 
ing the British troops from AfFghanistan without 
making* an effort to restore the prestige of our arms, 

* Kaye's history of the War in Afghanistan, Vol. II., p. 432. 

H 



98 



or to rescue the British captives from the hands of the 
AfFghans. 

However much annoyed Lord Ellenborough may 
have been, at the earnest and energetic language in 
which Major Outram remonstrated against the a imme- 
diate retirement" policy, his Lordship could not fail to 
acknowledge the services that officer was rendering. 
And on the 22nd of May (1842), he caused intima- 
tion to be made to him that when, on the withdrawal 
of the British troops from above the Passes, it should 
become necessary to abolish the Political Agency for 
Beloochistan, the appointment of cc Envoy to the States 
on the Lower Indus" would be bestowed on him. 

On the 7th of June, Lord Ellenborough directed his 
Secretary to notify his Lordship's a high apprecia- 
tion" of a the public zeal he had manifested by pro- 
ceeding* at much personal risk (from Sukkur) to Quetta, 
where his exertions were especially required in aid of 
General Nott's Army."* And on the 17th July, his 
Lordship, in an autograph letter to Major Outram, 
intimated his gratification at the amount of " car- 
riage" which Outram had placed at the General's 
disposal, expressing* a hope, at the same time, that 
through his " zealous and able exertions" the Canda- 
har Army had at that date been "furnished with 
ample means of moving in any direction." His Lord- 
ship's hopes had been more than realized. 

Not only did Major Outram, aided by his able 
assistants, provide General Nott with the means of ad- 

* The nature and dangers of the journey thus performed in the 
hot weather of two successive years have been adverted to in 
page 91. 



99 

vancing 1 on Ghizni and Cabool, and General England 
with those requisite for moving- his sick-and-store- 
encumbered column down the Bolan Pass, but, by a 
happy combination of diplomatic negotiations and 
military arrangements, he averted from the latter 
General the extensive and formidable hostile operations 
which it had been in contemplation to direct against 
him, on his march from the Kojuck Pass to Quetta. 
And the value of the service thus rendered is well 
understood by those who are acquainted with the his- 
tory of the AfFghan Campaigns. 

Outranks measures secured for the first two divi- 
sions of England's column, a safe and unopposed de- 
scent throug'h the Bolan Pass. And though the 
Affg-han Clan of Kakurs could not be prevented from 
taking- a few parting 1 shots, at the last division of 
the retreating- Force, as it left their country, the 
opposition offered by them was very trifling. Such 
as it was, Sir Richard England received valuable 
assistance in repelling it, from Major Outram, who, 
tendering his services in a military capacity, aided in 
flanking the heights, and at the head of a band of 
Brahooes (Khelat subjects) dispersed the most for- 
midable body of the enemy. 

On the 10th of October the last division of General 
England's Army had reached the plains ; and Sir C. 
Napier has recorded his opinion that to Major Outram 
was its safety due.* 

Were not the compiler of these u Memoranda" re- 

* " Lord Ellenborough, seeing everything- going wrong, and very 
dangerously wrong too, had you not saved England's column/' dbc 
— Sir C. Napier's MS. correspondence, 25th January, 1843. 



100 

strained, by considerations which he deems it unneces- 
sary to detail, from producing* in this place certain 
correspondence to which he has been permitted access, 
he could prove that, in the estimation of the most dis- 
tinguished Civil and Military functionaries employed 
in the North Western Frontier, Major Outram did 
more towards the retrieval of our tarnished honour in 
Affghanistan, than any single man — except the Ge- 
nerals in the field, and the heroic and chivalric 
Geoege Bussell Clerk. And it is within the 
compiler's knowledge that this* eminent public servant 
recog'nizes in Outram one whose acts and performances 
were not second to his own. 

The following* tribute to Outram's merits, extracted 
from the Calcutta Review for September 1845, is 
from the pen of one of the highest and most illus- 
trious of our Indian functionaries, a distinguished 
soldier, a still more distinguished Civil Administrator, 
and one who has enjoyed the personal esteem, the pro- 
found respect, and the entire confidence as well of the 
present Governor-General of India, as of his prede- 
cessor, Lord Hardinge : — 

"In the year 1838, Outram carried to AfFghanistan 
a character such as could not be paralleled bv any 
officer of his standing in India. His services during 
the first Afighan War were second to those of no 
officer then and there employed. And had he re- 
mained in the Ghilzee country, or at Khelat, many of 
our disasters might have been averted. But it is by 
his Civil Management, first of Lower Sind, and 
then of both the Upper and Lower Provinces and of 
all Beloochistan, that Outr°™ has won our highest 



101 



admiration. When the European inhabitants of Cal- 
cutta trembled for our Indian Empire — when, in the 
highest places, men grew pale at the evil tidings from 
Afghanistan — Outram held his frontier post with a 
firm hand, a brave heart, and cheerful tone that ought 
to have been contagious. Vigilant, conciliatory, 
courageous, he managed with his handful of troops, 
not only to prevent the Ameers from taking advan- 
tage of our disasters, but to induce them to aid in 
furnishing' supplies and carriage for the relieving, then 
considered the retreating Army. The merits of his 
exertions on that occasion are little understood. He 
obeyed as was his duty : but he did not the less 
clearly perceive the ruinous tendency of the Govern- 
ment Orders. He had the moral courage to sacrifice 
his own immediate interests by stemming the then 
prevalent tide of cowardly counsel. James Out- 
ram in one quarter, and George Russell Clerk, 
a kindred spirit, in another, were the two men who 
then stood in the breach ; who forced the authorities 
to listen to the fact against which they tried to close 
their ears, that the proposed abandonment of the 
British Prisoners in Afghanistan would be dangerous 
to the State, as it was base to the captives. These 
counsels were successfully followed : the British na- 
tion thanked our Indian Rulers, while of the two 
men, without whose persevering remonstrances and 
exertions, Nott and Pollock might have led back their 
armies, without being permitted to make an effort to 
retrieve our credit, Clerk was slighted, Outram was 
superseded ! As cheerfully as he had stepped for- 
ward did Outram now retire ; and again when his 



102 



services were required, was he ready to act in the 
field, in willing- subordination to the officer who had 
benefited by his super cession."* 

The opinions entertained by the highest living 
authority on Indian Affairs, regarding* Major Out- 
ram's services in that country, may be gathered from 
the following" letter addressed by the Hon. Mount 
Stuart Elphinstone, to one of the East India Di- 
rectors in the year 1843 : — 

a Besides his ample share in the planning* and con- 
duct of various military enterprises, his political ser- 
vices for several years have been such, as it would be 
difficult to parallel in the whole course of Indian di- 
plomacy. We forced a subsidiary grant and tribute 
on Sind — we made open war on the Brahoes of 
Khelat — killed their Chief, and took their capital; 
and on these two powers all our communications with 
Candahar depended. To keep them quiet, and pre- 
vent them thwarting* our measures, would have been 
difficult even in times of peace and prosperity 5 yet 
such was Colonel Outranks management, as to obtain 
their cordial co-operation during the whole of our 
dangers and disasters in AfFghanistan. Our move- 

* It is not sufficiently known that Clerk and Outram were ablj 
supported in tlieir protests against the abandonment of our captive 
countrymen, by Mr. John Campbell Robertson, of the Bengal 
Civil Service, the Lieut. -Governor of the North-West Provinces 
during the period of our Affghan reverses. And he, like Clerk 
and Outram, was made to feel the effects of Lord Ellenborough's 
displeasure, for urging on his Lordship measures which, tardily 
adopted as they were, procured for him the thanks of Parliament, 
and an elevation in the Peerage, and bestowed on his administration 
the highest illustration it received. 



103 



ments in every direction from Candahar depending* 
on the country supplies we received from them, all of 
which they mig*ht have withheld, without any show 
of hostility or ground of quarrel with us, had they 
been disposed for more open enmity — General En- 
gland's detachment could neither have retired or ad- 
vanced, as it did, and it is doubtful whether Nott 
himself could have made his way to the Indus, 
through the opposition and privations he must have 
suffered in such case. In an advance towards Cabul, 
he certainly could not, without the assistance he re- 
ceived throug-h the Sind and Khelat country/'* 

And it may not be uninteresting' to the reader to 
know, nor unimportant for our statesmen to be in- 
formed, that, low as is the estimate formed in these 
parts of the British g-ood faith and generosity, there is 
an Englishman whose name still commands respect, and 
whose summons to arms in behalf of his nation's interests 
would be responded to by the Chiefs of the Moostung*, 
Pisheen, and Shawl valleys. Dr. Stocks of the Bom- 
bay Army, one of the most zealous, accomplished, 
and enterprising* members of the service to which he 
belong-s, led by his love of science, and taste for ad- 
venture, to explore Beloochistan in 1849, found that 
" Outram Sahib" was held in undiminished honour 
and esteem by the rude people of that country. And 
he was asked by one of the Chiefs to convey to that 
officer an offer of service whenever circumstances 
might occur to render it desirable.f 

* i.e. Beloocliistan. 

t Of which the following- is a copy : — " Aldeenar (or Alleh 
Dineh Khoord Sirdar), presents his compliments to Outram Sahib, 



104 



The following* is an extract from a note addressed 
by Dr. Stocks to the compiler of these memoranda, in 
April, 1852 :— 

u Of all the English who went up to Khorassan, 
Outram seems to have commanded the respect and 
admiration of those rude tribes most ; owing- doubtless 
to the combination of English honesty, good feeling, 
and justice, with his acknowledged political and mili- 
tary ability. None of our other politicals were men- 
tioned with credit; I mean those in Beloochistan. 
Alleh Dineh said he was ready at Outranks call, with 
his whole clan, to open the Bolan, and act according 
to orders. And indeed there is a good feeling to- 
wards us over all Beloochistan owing to our politic 
though tardy recognition of young JNTusseer Khan, 
who is respected as the worthy representative of a 
long line (22) of Ahmedzie Chiefs, from a.d. 1500 
to the present time/' 

The appointment of " Envoy to the States on the 
Lower Indus/' which, on the 22nd May 1842, the 
Governor-General intimated his intention of bestowing* 
on Major Outram, so soon as our Armies had been 
withdrawn from above the Passes, was not bestowed 
on him. Lord Ellenborough, without condescending 

and will be always ready, as in 1842, to perform any service that 
may be required of him, as witness his signet. Given at Ispenglee, 
near Meru, this 25th day of May, 1850. Seal of Alleh Dineh." 
To this is added a postscript from one of the principal Syeds (holy 
men) of the country. " Syed Wais Shah (formerly of Keravi, now 
living" at Moostung) desires remembrance of former passages and 
adventures of the road. Many others, be they greater or lesser 
note, hold yet good memory of Outram Sahib." Signed Syed 
Wais Shah, 



105 



to offer any explanation, violated the pledge he had 
spontaneously made. But the cause was obvious. 
Major Outram had, in the mean time, seriously of- 
fended his Lordship. He had persevered in protest- 
ing* against the retirement policy so long* resolved 
on ) and he had continued these protests after even 
Mr. Clerk had given up remonstrance as useless.* 
He had, further, presumed to defend one of his As- 
sistants (Lieut. Hammersly) against what he regarded 
as a precipitate act of injustice on his Lordship's part 
— an injustice which sank deep into the heart of the 
noble-minded Hammersly, and ultimately brought 
him to the grave. Though not personally concerned 
in the matter, Major Outram deemed it his dut} r , 
as the Head of the department, to defend that gallant 
soldier. And the following extracts from his corre- 
spondence with a high Indian functionary will show 
that he was prepared to sacrifice his own interests 
and prospects rather than evade the duty : — 

" Stikkiir, May 23rd 1842. See Hammersly's De- 
fence, and my private correspondence with the Go- 
vernment of India on the subject. If the simple 
justice I solicit for him — of an inquiry, at least— be 
denied, I shall advise Hammersly to appeal against 
his Lordship's act; and I shall forward the appeal^ 

* Writing- to a friend on the 24th of July, while yet ignorant of 
the secret authority which Lord Ellenborough had (on the 4th of 
July) given to General Nott to advance if he chose to do so on his 
own responsibility, he thus expressed himself: — "I shame to look 
the natives of this country in the face after our cowardly demea- 
nour to the Affghans. * * It positively makes me 
sick to think of our degradation, and of the fate of our poor aban- 
doned countrymen." 



100 



throug'h his Lordship, to the Court of Directors. For 
thoug-h, undoubtedly, the authority which confers poli- 
tical appointments can rescind them, still no authority 
can with propriety be so exercised as to blast the 
character and prospects of an officer, without some 
just or sufficient cause being- assigned, and proved, if 
the accused party denies the existence of such cause/'* 

Ag-ain on the 3rd Aug-ust : — 

cc I hope I have rendered all secure for the delicate 
measure of withdrawing* our Armies from above the 
Passes; and at any rate my disagreeable position 
shall not cause me to relax one iota in my zeal and 
endeavours to effect the best for our public interests, 
although little encouraged to exertion by his Lordship, 
who not only leaves me in entire ignorance of what is 
intended, but strikes off Jive of my assistants in Ge- 
neral Orders, without even intimating', much less ex- 
plaining", the circumstance to me. This, inclusive of 
Hammersly's case, makes in all six. What would 
his Lordship think if I took no pains to counteract 
the consequences of having- so many offices under me 
thus suddenly deprived of supervision ? For instance, 
what confusion must have arisen, supposing- I had 
allowed Hammersly to throw up his work from the 
day he appeared in Orders, and had transferred to the 
Military Commanding- Officer, as was directed (whoever 

* Under Lord Auckland's administration the various heads of 
diplomatic offices were encouraged to communicate with each 
other, and seek each other's counsel and advice, on the various 
public questions that came before them. And these letters were 
written before Lord Ellenborough had promulgated his prohibition 
against the practice. 



107 



he might be), a Treasury containing' 7 Lacs (£70,000) 
with an outstanding* balance of 14 Lacs to adjust \ 
the command of the Bolan Rangers 5 the management 
of the Dawk communications through the Pass ; the 
Revenue management and collection of the District 
of Shawl, &c, &c, &c, &c. Yet I have been repri- 
manded for allowing him to continue in office a day 
after receipt of the Order placing him at the disposal 
of the Commander-iii' Chief Why ! It would take 
the most able Civil Servant in India, with all the ad- 
vantages of efficient establishments, three months 
to make up the accounts, and give over charge, of 
such an office. * * * However, his Lordship's 
will be done 5 and it shall be done by me so long as I 
can do it. But glad indeed should I be to rejoin my 
regiment, rather than continue a slave in so thankless 
an office, whatever be the dignity or salary appertain- 
ing* thereto." 

In reference to the offence given to Lord Ellen- 
boroug-h by Outranks persistent defence of Ham- 
mersly, it may not be amiss to adduce the following 
paragraph from the Calcutta Review, written by the 
distinguished contributor who has been already 
quoted. 

a Outranks chivalrous defence of his Assistant, 
Lieut. Hammersly, is one of the many instances in 
which he advocated the right, at the peril of his own 
interests. Hammersly was as brave, as honest-hearted 
a young soldier as ever fell a victim to his duty. We 
knew him well 5 and no one who did so, need be ashamed 
to shed a tear over his fate. He was literally sacri- 
ficed for telling the truth — a truth, too, that was of 



108 



vital importance to the beleaguered Candahar Army 
— nay to the interests of "British India ! Peace he to 
the memory of this noble fellow ! " 

The present writer would gladly have abstained 
from all allusion to the circumstances which caused 
Lord Ellenborough to withhold from Major Outram 
the distinguished post that had been promised him, had 
not inaccurate statements been promulgated on the 
subject. Thus Sir W. Napier, in his a Conquest of 
Scinde" writing under imperfect information, was in- 
duced to express himself as follows : — 

" It was not Lord Ellenborough's policy to divide 
power between political and military chiefs; nor to 
place the latter below the former when war was at 
hand. Hence the removal of Major Outram was a 
necessary consequence of Sind being placed under a 
General j but there were other causes for dismissing 
him. The Governor-General did not think highly of 
his talents, and had been forced to withdraw all confi- 
dence in him, on specific grounds of a serious and 
public nature, distinct from the offence he gave by 
urging his own opinions and views upon his superiors, 
against all reason. Sir C. Napier, a better man for 
war or policy, and of a surer judgment in what consti- 
tutes greatness, then took the entire charge of Sind 
and its troubled affairs." 

Respecting the " views and opinions" pertinaciously 
urged by Major Outram, enough has been already 
said. And it only remains to be stated that the sole 
discoverable public act of Major Outram, beyond those 
above enumerated, with which Lord Ellenborough 
found fault, was the restoration to the Khan of Khelat, 



109 



of the Valley of Shawl, of which we had despoiled 
his father, and which Lord Ellenborough would have 
left as a bone of contention between the Affghans, 
against whom we were prosecuting- a war of retribu- 
tion, and the Khelat subjects, on whose good services 
we were dependant for the safe descent to the plains 
of General England's Army ! 

Major Outranks suggestion to restore Shawl to its 
rightful owner, had already received the sanction of 
Lord Auckland. But, before carrying it out, he applied 
for a renewal of the sanction to Lord Ellenborougli. 
Upwards of two months elapsed without any reply 
being received ; and, urged by important political 
considerations, Outram ventured to give effect to a 
measure which has since been complacently dilated 
on by Lord Ellenborough's most able and eloquent 
advocate, as reflecting the utmost credit on his Lord- 
ship. Mr. Charles Lushington, in his u Great Coun- 
try's little Wars," has thus expressed himself : — 

a The portion of his dominions taken from him 
(Khan of Khelat), has since been restored by Lord 
Ellenborough. It is worth observing that, to this 
single act of justice we may attribute the subsequent 
tranquillity of the country !" 

Nay, Mr. Lushington singles out this measure of 
Lord Auckland, adopted at Major Outranks sugges- 
tion, and for giving effect to which, the latter officer 
was rebuked by Lord Ellenborough, as almost the only 
"spot upon which the eye can dwell with pleasure, in 
the dark history of our four years 1 supremacy beyond 
the Indus /" 

Instead of receiving the appointment of u Envoy to 



i 



110 



the States on the Lower Indus/' Major Outram was 
remanded to his regiment, by an order issued on the 
19th October, 1842— the day after Lord Ellenborough 
received intelligence of the safe descent to the plains 
of General England's Army, which, as Sir C. Napier 
has declared, and as the Indian authorities well know, 
owed its safety, in a great measure, if not entirely, to 
the exertions of Major Outram and his zealous assist- 
ants. By that order the Political Establishment was 
broken up. Some of its members returned to regi- 
mental duty : others, under the designation of aides- 
de-camp, were selected to perform political duty under 
Sir C. Napier, to whom was confided the supreme 
control of Sind, political and military. And all the 
honour or reward vouchsafed to Major Outram, and 
his assistants, in consideration of their past services, 
consisted in the following not very impassioned com- 
pliment, conveyed in a General Order dated the 20th 
of October : — 

"The Governor-General also requests that Major- 
General Sir C. Napier will express to Major Outram 
and the other political officers, his thanks for the zeal 
and ability they have manifested in the collection of 
the means of carriage and supply, and in their various 
transactions with the native Chiefs and tribes, tending 
to facilitate and secure the descent of the several 
columns of the Army." 

The treatment received by Major Outram, naturally 
created a considerable sensation in the Indian Services \ 
and letters containing the most gratifying expressions 
of admiration for his achievements, and sympathy for 
their unworthy requital, poured in on him from the 



Ill 



most distinguished Civil and Military servants of 
Government. His own feeling's may be judged of by 
the following extract from a letter addressed by him 
to his personal friend and diplomatic instructor. Colonel 
J ohn Sutherland, whose name is a cherished household 
word wherever the modern history of India is 
studied : — 

u It is amusing to you and me, and those who know 
how much we owe to his Lordship, to see him pluming 
himself on the retrieval of the honour of our arms at 
Cabool. Had he had his own views carried out, what 
a different position we should now have been in ! I 
care not now what his Lordship does with me. I 
have lived to see our honour redeemed, and my 
personal welfare is a very secondary consideration. 
AfFghan prowess is again estimated at its true value, 
which his Lordship would have left future ages to 
believe superior to ours ! " 

Again : — 

u Thank God, I am again independent ; and I re- 
join my regiment with greater pleasure than I left it 
many years ago, elate with hope, and honourable am- 
bition. This is no affectation. May his Lordship's 
coming honours — c for the steadfast resolution with 
which he upheld our honour' — sit as lightly on his 
conscience, as do his slights, or my degradation, on my 
own mind." 

The only regrets and anxieties experienced by Major 
Outram were on account of his able, zealous, and hard- 
working assistants. The following extract from a letter 
addressed to one of them, on the 21st September, will 
show the deep interest he took in their welfare : — 



112 



" See how determined his Lordship is to adulate the 
military, and humble the politicals. He has written 
a most flattering" letter to General England on the 
passage of the Kojuck, and so he will on that of the 
Bolan Pass ; while we, who ward off opposition, and 
secure to the Army the means of moving*, are looked 
upon as drones and dirt. Already have Bell and 
Hammer sly died, and some half dozen more of our 
department sacrificed their constitutions in the service 
of Government; and Pontardent is likely to be an- 
other victim. Yet no sacrifice on our parts can give us 
consideration in his Lordship's eyes. But what need 
we care for his applause, when we know that we have 
done our duty to our country, and moreover — good 
service. I shall not, however, allow Pontardent, 
Leckie, French, and yourself, to whom I am mainly 
indebted for keeping* matters straight during* the late 
crisis, to be overlooked. However, and whatever may 
be my own fate, I will take care that your services 
shall be acknowledged." 



113 



VII. 

SERVICES AS COMMISSIONER IN SIND. 

1842—1843. 

It was Major Outranks duty, ere he left Sind, to 
place before Sir C. Napier a full and clear statement 
of our relations with the Princes of that country, and 
of the measures for the re-adjustment of those rela- 
tions which had been, for some time, under considera- 
tion. How he acquitted himself of this duty is suffi- 
ciently indicated in the following' extract from a letter 
addressed to him by Sir C. Napier on the 28th Oc- 
tober 1842 :— 

a I cannot allow you to leave this command without 
expressing* to you the hig-h sense I entertain of your 
zeal and abilities in the public service, and of the obli- 
gations I personally feel towards you, for the great 
assistance you have so kindly and so diligently afforded 
me ) thereby diminishing* in every way the difficulties 
that I have had to encounter, as your successor in the 
political department of Sind." 

Anxious to afford Major Outram a parting* mani- 
festation of their sympathy, esteem, and admiration, 
the Officers of the Force invited him to a public dinner 
on the 5th of November. Sir C. Napier presided • and 
in proposing* the toast of the evening*, he paid its sub- 

I 



114 



ject the highest compliment that one soldier could pos- 
sibly render to another. 

a Gentlemen" — said the veteran warrior — u I have 
told you that there are only to be two toasts drunk 
this evening*. One, that of a lady (the Queen); you 
have already responded to ; the other shall be for a 
gentleman. But, before I proceed any further, I must 
tell you a story. In the fourteenth century there was, 
in the French Army, a knight renowned for deeds of 
gallantry in war, and wisdom in council \ indeed, so 
deservedly famous was he that, by general acclama- 
tion, he was called the knight sans peur et sans re- 
pro che. The name of this knight you may all know 
was the Chevalier Bayard. Gentlemen, I give you, 
6 The Bayard of India, sans peur et saris reproche — 
Major James Outram, of the Bombay Army.' " 

This honourable and spontaneous tribute derived 
increased value from the fact that it was not rendered 
till after Sir C. Napier had perused Major Outranks 
correspondence with the Government of India, on all 
questions relating to Sind and Beloochistan, wherein 
he had differed in opinion from Lord Ellenborough, as 
well as copies of the letters which he had addressed to 
his lordship's secretaries, and other high functionaries, 
in reference to the originally contemplated Affghan 
policy, and to the case of Lieut. Hammersly. 

His duty to Sir 0. Napier being performed, Major 
Outram took his departure from Sind. On his ar- 
rival in Bombay, he received the congratulations of 
his own Government, on u the satisfactory terms under 
which he had made over his late important charge to 
Sir C. Napier," as well as an assurance a of the high 



115 



gratification which they had derived from observing* 
the eminent zeal and ability with which he had dis- 
charged the important duties confided to him during* 
the three last eventful years." And, in the course of 
a few days, the Governor (the Big-ht Hon. Sir G. 
Arthur) offered him the only appointment then in his 
gift, with an expression of regret that he had none at 
his disposal which, in point of responsibility and emo- 
lument, more nearly approached those which he had 
previously filled a with such distinguished advantage 
to the public service." Major Outram had, however, 
resolved on proceeding* on a furlough to Europe ; and 
he declined availing* himself of the Governor's kindness. 

On the 13th of December, the g-eneral com- 
munity of Bombay g*ave a public entertainment 
in his honour, which was described in the papers of 
the day, as the most remarkable demonstration that 
had taken place at the presidency for many years. 
It was certainly one of the most enthusiastic. Nor 
did the enthusiasm of his admirers exhaust itself in 
this demonstration. For in the course of a few days 
a second, and, if possible, a still more impressive public 
reception was given to him at the Club. And those 
who were present on that occasion will not readily 
forget the fervour with which the assembled company 
endorsed the eulog*ium passed on their guest by the 
Chairman — a gentleman recognized by successive 
Governors General, and by the Court of Directors, 
as one of the ablest and most distinguished mem- 
bers of the Civil Service of India.* 

* "Early distinguished" — said Mr.Willoughby — "for intrepidity, 
judgment, and firmness, his name became soon known as a soldier of 



no 



Major Outram was compelled to foreg*o for a time 
the pleasure he had anticipated from a visit to Eng- 
land. For Sir 0. Napier had, intermediately, re- 
quested that he might be appointed a a Commissioner 
for the arrangement of the details of the Treaty which 
was to be proposed to the Ameers of Sind." Lord 
Ellenboroug-h had directed him to return to Sind in 
that capacity. And Outram obeyed. 

His proceeding's as Commissioner in Sind, the 
opinions he expressed, and the recommendations he 
urg*ed ; are detailed in his Commentary.* They obtained 
the unanimous and cordial approbation of the Court 
of Directors. They have been supported and applauded 
in Parliament by many of the most distinguished 
members of all political sections. f And recent revela- 

the first promise, and a sportsman with whom few could vie. . . . 
Well has he heen compared by a gallant officer in another place, to 
the Knight who, above all, bore the character of being* sans peur et 
sans reproche — the noble Bayard — the pride of chivalry — the g'lory 
of France. For, like him, bold in the field, wise in council, cour- 
teous and gentle in chambers, wherever he has moved he has 
been admired, respected, and beloved." 

* " The Conquest of Sind : a Commentary, by Lieut. -Colonel 
Outram, C.B." Blackwood and Sons, 1846. This book is now 
out of print. Colonel Outram has been repeatedly urged to prepare 
a new edition ; but unwilling to do aught which might appear to 
evince a wish to re-awaken the unhappy (and now nearly forgotten) 
personal controversy between Sir C. Napier and himself, he has 
hitherto resisted the solicitations of his friends. 

f Amongst those who have prominently advocated the views of 
Major Outram in Parliament, may be mentioned, Lord Jocelyn, 
Earls Grey and Shaftesbury, Sir R. H. Inglis, Mr. T. B. Macaulay, 
Mr. Hume, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Vernon Smith, Mr. R. D. Mangles, 
Mr. Sharman Crawford, &c, &c, &c. 



117 



tions have lent to them additional and unexpected 
illustration and enforcement.* It is, therefore, unne- 
cessary to allude to them in this place, further than to 
observe that, while he zealously applied himself to the 
task of pacifically carrying" out the unjust and impolitic 
arrangements, with the execution of which he was 
charged, he did not shrink from protesting- against 
their injustice, and predicting* their disastrous results. 
Thus, on the 26th January, 1843, three weeks before 
the battle of Meeanee, he wrote as follows to Sir C. 
Napier : — 

u It grieves me to say that my heart, and that judg- 
ment which God has given me, unite in condemning* 
the course we are carrying out for his Lordship, as 
most tyrannical — positive robbery. And I consider 
that every life that may hereafter be lost in conse- 
quence, will be a murder." 

And so strongly was he impressed with a conviction 
of the impossibility of carrying out the details of the 
new arrangements in a satisfactory manner, that when, 
the day after despatching this letter, he received, 
through Sir 0. Napier, a communication from Lord 
Ellenborough, assigning him a monthly allowance of 
£150 in remuneration of his services, he unhesitat- 
ingly declined to avail himself of his Lordship's 
liberality. u I have not" — he wrote to the General — 
"been able to effect anything* as Commissioner yet, 
and see little prospect of doing so." And thus he 
continued : — " Whatever may be my private objec- 

* Vide the two series of Paliamentary Papers relative to Meer 
Ali Merad, moved for by the Earl of Shaftesbury and Viscount 
Jocelvn. 

ml 



118 



tions to receiving* what might possibly be con- 
strued as a pecuniary favour,* I must, without 
reference to any personal feelings whatever, abstain 
from accepting* public money which I have not earned. 
I beg*, therefore, that you will not be annoyed with 
me for declining* to take advantage of the authority 
to draw salary as Commissioner. Pray do not suppose 
that I intend officially objecting- to receive the money, 
or that I purpose taking* any notice whatever of the 
matter. I merely intend allowing" the half-sheet of 
foolscap to remain a dead-letter; or, rather, I have 
destroyed it, that I mig"ht not hereafter be tempted to 
make use of it. I shall simply draw my Captain's 
'pay in the field/ to which I have an undoubted 
right, f 

u I am too g"lad of the honour of serving- under you, 
and proud of your friendship and confidence, to require 
or wish for further advantag-e so long- as I continue 
with you. 

66 1 shall defer sending" this letter, however, till you 
dispense with my services, lest it should induce you to 
do so one day sooner than you otherwise intended."J 

Sir C. Napier did not consider himself at liberty to 
modify the policy against which Major Outram had 
protested. And, believing- that no value could be 

* From Lord Ellenborough. 

f Outram, though Brevet-Major, was only Regimental Captain. 

% This letter was sealed in the presence of Captain Brown and 
Dr. Gibbon on the 27th of January, for delivery, by the first of 
these officers, to Sir C. Napier as soon as Outram left Scinde, or in 
the event of his falling. It was delivered on the 20th of February, 
1843. 



119 



attached to the assurances and guarantees of the 
Ameers, he continued to advance on the capital of 
Lower Sind, notwithstanding* that its Princes had 
acquiesced in all the terms proposed to them, and had 
appended their seals to the "Treaty." Exasperated 
by the spoliative character of that Treaty, more espe- 
cially by the unpar ailed wrongs inflicted on Meer 
Noostum, the venerable Rais, or Lord Paramount of 
Sind, and still further incensed at the continued 
approach of the British Army, the Belooche feuda- 
tories that had hastened to the capital to offer their 
services to their menaced Sovereigns, vowed vengeance 
against Major Outram, who, attended by a small 
escort, had been deputed to Hydrabad by Sir C. 
Napier. The Ameers implored Outram to return to 
the Army, lest he should be made the object of an 
attack, from which they might be unable to protect 
him, and for which the General would hold them 
responsible. He declined to do so ; and on one 
occasion, when returning from the Durbar, he and his 
party were saved from the fury of the enraged Beloo- 
ches only by the personal interposition of some of the 
Ameers, who, knowing their danger, insisted on acting 
as their escort. ce Had we"— writes Outram — u Had 
we fallen victims, who shall say that our blood would 
have been justly chargeable on the men who spilt it ? 
In what capital, even of Europe, could we, visiting it 
under similar circumstances, and after the occurrence 
of the events which had recently unhinged men's minds 
in Sind, have expected to pass in safety through the 
midst of an infuriated populace ? "* 

* " The Conquest of Sind : a Commentary," p. 357. 



120 



Outram's position as Commissioner had been most 
anomalous and painful. He had been constrained to 
take an active, and somewhat prominent part in an 
invasion which he had strongly deprecated, even when 
it was merely hinted at as a possible contingency. 
The invasion had been followed up by the infliction of 
still further injustice on the unhappy Princes of Sind ; 
and, emphatically as Outram had denounced that in- 
justice to Sir C. Napier, he was now bound to vindicate 
it in his communications with the victims. On the 
Ameers he had to urge a speedy settlement of their 
affairs, while he was engaged in demonstrating* to the 
General that the terms insisted on, as the basis of 
the settlement, would ruin the Ameers, and revolu- 
tionize the country. He was required to obtain assent 
to demands against which he himself had protested as 
u positive robbery" And he had to warn the Sindian 
Princes against resistance, as a measure which would 
bring* on them merited destruction, thoug*h he had 
himself recorded his solemn conviction that every life 
lost in the field, in consequence of our aggressive policy, 
would be chargeable on us as a murder. 

a Had Outram" — writes the Calcutta Reviewer, 
previously quoted — a Had Outram, when deputed to 
Hydrabad, been permitted the fair discretion that his 
position demanded: — had he been authorized definitely 
to promise any reasonable terms, his abilities and his 
character would have secured an honourable peace. 
But it was not in human nature that the Ameers 
should long continue to listen to an Envoy sent to 
demand everything, and offer nothing. This was not 
negotiating; it was dragooning. A British officer, 



121 



escorted by a single company, was not the proper dele- 
gate for such a mission. Sir C. Napier, at the head of 
his army, was the fitting' ambassador." 

Outram held three conferences with the Ameers, 
and made every effort to save them. But the con- 
tinued advance of Sir C. Napier, who was now within 
sixteen miles of the capital, and certain circumstances 
connected with the advance, as reported by the repre- 
sentatives who had been sent to Sir C. Napier's camp, 
satisfied the Belooches that the General was bent on 
hostilities ; that he meant to attack Hydrabad without 
any formal declaration of war, and in spite of the 
acquiescence of the Princes in all his demands.* And 
they resolved, at all hazards, to oppose a bold front to 
the unprovoked assault ag'ainst which they had been 
warned to prepare. Afraid longer to resist the wild 
fury of their exasperated feudatories, a majority of 
the Ameers would appear to have given their assent 
to a determination they were powerless to overrule. 
And as it would have been in violation of the most 
elementary strategic principles to allow Outranks 
military escort (which had now been reinforced 
by a company of H. M/s. 22nd Regt.) to remain 
at the Residency, and therefore in the rear of the 
army about to move out to meet Sir C. Napier, in- 
structions were issued for dislodging- them. Eio'ht 
thousand Belooches were accordingly despatched to 
the Residency to effect this operation, with directions 
to avoid all unnecessary bloodshed. a If the British 
fight, kill them ; — if they run away, never mind — 
was the order issued to the Belooche Army by Meer 

* Vide Appendix. 



Shadad, who, to restrain the exuberant zeal of his 
soldiery, had placed himself at their head, and who 
seems to have thought that the overwhelming' force 
under his command would deter the escort from 
offering* resistance. * 

The British, however, did not " run away." As a 
matter of course, and as a point of duty, the Belooches 
did their best to u kill them." And On tram's small 
but heroic band achieved one of the most memorable 
feats recorded in ' the military annals of India — the 
defence of the Hydrabad Residency. 

So studious was Outram of the interests and reputa- 
tion of his brethren in arms, that he desired Captain 
Conway of H. M.'s. 22nd Reg*t., the officer in com- 
mand of his escort, to report this brilliant achievement, 
on the plea that he himself was only present in a 
diplomatic capacity. Captain Conway's report was, how- 
ever, returned by Sir C. Napier, who insisted on Out- 
ram reporting" his cessation of his diplomatic functions 
on the first shot from the enemy, and consequently his 
assumption of the military command as the senior 

* Vide Peer Budhoodeen's evidence in the Supplement to Par- 
liamentary Papers on Scinde. Even Lord Ellenborough himself, 
while yet ignorant of the real merits of the case, inclined to the 
belief, that " had the Ameers been entirely masters of their own 
troops/' hostilities would have been averted. The fuller informa- 
tion contained in the Parliamentary Papers leaves no doubt on the 
subject. And that Meer Sobdar, if not also Meer Meer Mahommed, 
deprecated to the last even a passive resistance to the anticipated 
attack of Sir C. Napier, is shown by the eloquent writer of " Dry 
Leaves from Young Egypt" in his 13th Chapter. It is generally 
understood that the additional papers called for in the House of 
Commons by Lord Jocelyn, and now in the press, will tend to 
throw much additional light on this subject. 



123 



officer present. To this Outram was only reconciled 
by the General's assurance that he would more effec- 
tually serve Conway, by reporting* his gallantry, 
than by leaving* him to report it himself. And to 
that fine officer, and his intrepid band, did Outram 
attribute the entire merit of the defence. * 

To the defence of the Residency succeeded the 
battle of Meeanee ; and in reporting- that action to the 
Governor-General, on the 18th of February, 1843, 
Sir C. Napier thus alluded to Outranks perform- 
ances :— 

" On the 14th instant the whole body of the Ameers, 
assembled in full Durbar, formally affixed their seals 
to the draft-treaty. On leaving- the Durbar Major 
Outram and his companions were in great peril • a 
plot had been laid to murder them all. They were 
saved by the g-uards of the Ameers ; but the next day 
(the 15th) the residence of Major Outram was attacked 
by 8,000 of the Ameers' troops, headed by one or more 
of the Ameers. The report of this nefarious transac- 
tion I have the honour to inclose. I heard of it at 
Hala, at which place the fearless and distinguished 
Major Outram joined me with his brave companions in 
the stern and extraordinary defence of his Residency 

* The officers present at the defence of the Residency were Cap- 
tains Conway, of H. M's. 22nd, and Green, of the 21st N. I., both of 
whom received the rank of Brevet-Major, and the Companionship 
of the Bath; Brevet Captain Brown, of the Bengal Engineers, who 
subsequently became Secretary to the Government of Sind ; Brevet 
Captain (now Major) Wells, of the 15th N. I., the able and gallant 
commandant of the Poonah Horse ; Lieutenants Harding and 
Pennefather, of H.M's. 21st Regiment. 



124 



against so overwhelming- a force, accompanied by six 
pieces of cannon. * * * 

"1 ought to have observed, in the body of this 
despatch, that I had, the night before the action, de- 
tached Major Outram in the steamers, with 200 
sepoys, to set fire to the wood in which we understood 
the enemy's left flank was posted. This was an opera- 
tion of great difficulty and danger, but would have 
been most important to the result of the battle. How- 
ever, the enemy had moved about eight miles to their 
right during the night, and Major Outram executed 
his task without difficulty at the hour appointed, viz., 
nine o'clock, and from the field we observed the smoke 
of the burnino- wood arise. I am strongly inclined to 
think that this circumstance had some effect on the 
enemy, but it deprived me of the able services of 
Major Outram, Captain Green, and Lieutenants 
Brown and Wells, &c, &c, &c. 

" The defence of the Residency by Major Outram 
and the small force with him, against such num- 
bers of the enemy, was so admirable, that I have 
scarcely mentioned it in the foregoing despatch, be- 
cause I propose to send your Lordship a detailed 
account of it, as a brilliant example of defending a 
military post." * 

With the battle of Meeanee necessarily terminated 
Major Outranks functions as Commissioner. And he 

* It is to be regretted that Sir C. Napier never fulfilled the 
intention here expressed. In acknowledging* Sir C. Napier's 
despatch, the Secret Committee expressed their admiration of 
the defence of the Residency, and their sense of the peculiar 
appropriateness of the terms " fearless and distinguished" as 
applied by the General to Major Outram. 



125 



returned to Bombay, where he was received with the 
most gratifying* demonstrations of regard and respect 
by the Government, the Services^ and the g-eneral 
community. A public meeting- was called, to deter- 
mine on the best mode of testifying* the g-eneral senti- 
ment, when it was unanimously resolved to present 
him with a sword, of the value of 800 g'uineas, and a 
costly piece of plate.* 

* The following- inscription appears on the sword presented to 
Major Outram : — 

" Presented to Major James Outram, 23rd Regiment Bombay Native 
Infantry, in token of the regard of his friends, and the high estimation in 
which he is held for the intrepid gallantry which has marked his career 
in India, but more especially his heroic defence of the British Residency 
at Hyderabad, in Sind, on the 15th of February, 1843, against an army 
of 8,000 Beloochees, with six guns. — Bombay, April, 1843." 

Marked on one side of the blade, — 

" Major James Outram." 

On the other, — 

" Sans peur et sans reproche." 

There are many of Outram' s friends who will derive pleasure 
from perusing the following letter, which he received on the same 
occasion from the universally respected Lord Bishop of Bombay. 

" Bycullah, March 29th, 1843. 
" My dear Sir, — Amongst the friends who assembled in the Town 
Hall on Saturday, in order to offer you a tribute of their respect, 
there probably was none who felt more admiration of your conduct 
in the late campaigns, and in your former situation when you were 
reducing the Bheel tribes to habits of order, than myself. I felt, 
however, that I could not consistently take part in the offering of a 
sword, as it is the object of my office and ministry to keep the 
sword in its scabbard, and to labour to promote peace. With 
these views, and with feelings of great respect for the intrepid 
bravery, ability, persevering activity, and I will add, forbearance 
towards the weak, which have marked your conduct, I venture to 



126 



For his military services during* the conquest of 
Sind ; Outram received the brevet rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel ; and was made a Companion of the Bath ; two 
distinctions u which" — to quote the words of the Hon. 
Mount Stuart Elphinstone — " had been promised, and 

offer you a small tribute of respect, and to request your acceptance 
of a Book, a blessed Book in whicb you may find support in the 
hour of trial, and consolation at that time when the sword must be 
laid aside, and when external thing's must cease to interest. In it, 
my dear sir, is to be found a peace which the world cannot disturb. 
I pray that this peace may be yours, and with sentiments of much 
admiration and respect, believe me to be, sir, very sincerely 
vours, 

"Thomas Bombay." 

The Books forwarded with the above letter were the Oxford 
editions of the " Book of Common Prayer" and of the " Holy 
Bible," bearing* the following inscription in the Bishop's hand- 
writing- : — 

" Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle." — Ps. cxL 7. 

Major Outram, 
As a mark of respect, 
With the kindest and best wishes 
of the Bishop of Bombay. 

March, 1843. 

" This is life eternal that they might know Thee the only true God and 
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." — St. John xvii. 3. 

It may not be uninteresting" to many of the readers of this 
volume to be informed, that while Outram has earned for himself a 
wide circle of devoted friends and ardent admirers among-st the 
Protestant clergy and missionaries in India, the kindness and pro- 
tection he has invariably afforded to the (too often) neglected mem- 
bers of the Latin communion, reached the ears, and obtained the 
formal thanks of the present Pope, who caused a gold medal to 
be struck, and transmitted to him, "as a testimonial of gratitude 
for the kindness displayed by you to poor Catholics under your 
command, or stationed within your Residency" 



127 



more than promised long* ag*o." " Had he, " con- 
tinues Mr. Elphinstone, " received these honours at 
the time (1840) he would now (on the principle which 
has been observed of advancing* each officer one step) 
have been made a Colonel, Aide-de-Camp to the 
Queen, and K.C.B." Mr. Elphinstone then proceeds 
to notice Outranks "political services, which it would 
be difficult to parallel in the whole course of Indian 
diplomacy." And he observes that, " considering- all 
these services, and the hig-h station held by Major 
Outram when he performed them, the appearance of 
his name amongst crowds of subalterns, is rather a 
humiliation than an honour." And so think many. 
At all events, the oversight of 1840 has materially 
injured Colonel Outram \ for if, as has been already 
stated, Major Outram had received the Lieut.-Colo- 
nelcy "promised, and more than promised" in that 
year, he would now have been entitled to command 
one of the Divisions of the Bombay Army. 

On the 1st of April 1843, Colonel Outram pro- 
ceeded to England, to avail himself of the Furlough for 
which he had applied in the preceding* December. And, 
on his arrival in this country, he lost no time in 
pleading for a mitigation of the fate of the dethroned, 
despoiled, and exiled Ameers, whom he knew to be 
innocent of much that had been laid to their charg-e. 

In support of his representations, he referred to his 
officially recorded " Notes" of the u Conferences" he 
had held with the Sindian Princes before the battle of 
Meeanee. These documents, containing- the Ameers' 
version of the events which had preceded Outranks 
mission to Hydrabad, and the justification of their 



128 



conduct, lie had forwarded to Sir C. Napier, on the 
11th February, three days before the commencement 
of hostilities. Sir C. Napier had undertaken to trans- 
mit them a at once" to the Governor-General, "be- 
cause it is fair to the Ameers." And Outram never 
doubted that they had been received by his Lordship, 
and by him despatched to the authorities in England ; 
but the authorities in England never even heard of 
them. Outram, therefore, furnished them with his 
own copies, and requested that, in justice to the 
Ameers, these should be published along* with the 
other papers relative to Sind, which had been called 
for in Parliament. And, though fully aware that by 
pressing* this request he would most probably (as he 
did) forfeit the token of Royal approbation which Her 
Majesty's Ministers were understood to contemplate be- 
stowing on him, in recognition of his services during* the 
AfFghan reverses, he continued to urge, and eventually 
carried, his point. The "Notes of Conference" were 
published; and a peremptory demand was made on 
Lord Ellenborough for the reasons which had induced 
him to suppress the originals. His Lordship, innocent 
of all attempts at suppression, and amazed at the 
charge, made a reference to Sir C. Napier; and the 
missing " Notes " were eventually transmitted to the 
Government of India — not, however, till long after 
the Ameers had been dethroned, despoiled, and sent 
off captives to Calcutta and Poma.* 

Nor were the a Notes" the only, or by any means 
the most important of the many documents — all essen- 

* We have his Lordship's admission of the fact, that these Notes 
did not reach him until four months after the fatal battle of 



129 



tially requisite to enable the Governor-General, and 
Her Majesty's Ministers, to form a correct opinion 
regarding* the Sind policy — that were withheld, until 
formally demanded from Sir Charles, months after the 
annexation of Sind. The supplementary volume of 
the Papers relating- to Sind, containing- these sup- 
pressed documents, affords painful evidence, that, when 
Lord Ellenborougii annexed that country — denounced, 
dethroned, despoiled, and exiled its Princes, and in 
lofty panegyric eulogized and sanctioned the whole of 
Sir C. Napier's proceeding's — he was in complete 
ig'norance of the real merits of the case. He knew 
neither the extent of the exactions that had been forced 
on the Ameers, nor the nature and cog-eney of the 
remonstrances they had offered \ the submission they 
had rendered, nor the efforts they had made to prove 
its sincerity. And equally devoid of correct informa- 
tion were Her Majesty's Ministers when they confirmed 
Lord Ellenboroug-h's acts and proclamations in refer- 
ence to Sind. 

But these acts and proclamations had been ratified 
before Outram appeared before the authorities in 
England to plead for the Ameers. In political ethics 
such a consideration is held conclusive. Governors and 
Governors -General must be " supported" however 
foolish or censurable may be their measures. When 
the sanction of Downing--street has once been given to 
those measures, even under a misconception, the duty 
becomes still more imperative. And little favour is 

Meeanee. "These notes" (observes Lord Ellenborough) "I never 
read until I saw them to-day, — June 13, 1853." See " Supplement 
to Sind Blue Book," No. 135. 

K 



130 



generally shown to those whose inconvenient reve- 
lations are calculated to lead to discussions regarding 
the wisdom or justice of a accomplished facts." Out- 
ram's services during the Affghan disasters were 
allowed to pass without the recognition which was at 
one time in contemplation. Not even did the non- 
fulfilment of the promise made to him for his previous 
performances in 1838-39 obtrude itself on the official 
conscience of Her Majesty's advisers. And Lord 
Ellenborough solaced himself for the temporary an- 
noyance and alarm he had experienced, by penning 
a Minutes/' in which Outram was depicted as an easily 
beguiled simpleton, and in which was reproduced the 
absurd story of his having offered advice, which, if 
adopted, would have compromised the safety of Sir 0. 
Napier's Army. For all this, Outram was fully pre- 
pared. When, alone and for awhile unsupported, he 
stood forth to implore clemency for the Ameers, he 
knew that he was sacrificing his personal interests. 
And it was not in his nature to shrink from the sacri- 
fice. But he did not anticipate that he would be called 
upon to renounce the friendship of Sir C. Napier, for 
whom, at that time, he entertained feelings of strong 
personal attachment. 

In pleading for the Ameers, he but gave effect to 
intentions of which he had long previously apprised 
Sir C. Napier, and in deprecation of which Sir Charles 
had never uttered a word. But the demand made on 
the latter for the suppressed documents, coupled with 
misapprehensions on his part as to the nature and ex- 
tent of Outram's representations, led to angry feelings 
and harsh language. The misunderstanding became 



131 



mutual^ complex, and insoluble. Serious imputations 
and irritating* epithets were evoked on both sides ; 
and much unnecessary acerbity was thrown into the 
quarrel by the officious intermeddling' of injudicious 
partizans. 

The compiler of these cc Memoranda" would not 
willingly indite a word calculated to resuscitate 
the strife. He therefore abstains from recapitulat- 
ing* and refuting* the unwarrantable allegations 
which , in the fervour of partizanship, some of Sir 
Charles Napier's supporters were induced to make in 
reference to Colonel Outram. And he has struck 
from his manuscript the comments on Sir William 
Napier's cc Conquest of Scinde," which at one time 
he had resolved on reproducing* from the Reviews in 
which they appeared. Those who have a taste for 
controversy, and are desirous of ascertaining* what the 
great military historian had to say respecting Colonel 
Outram, and what that officer had to advance regard- 
ing both Sir William and Sir Charles Napier, are 
referred to the two u Conquests of Scinde," — the one 
by Sir W. Napier, professing to be an history, the 
other, by Colonel Outram, avowedly a commentary on 
that history.* 

In the mean time, the Compiler deems it enough to 
conclude the present section with a brief quotation 
from the distinguished contributor to the Calcutta 

* Or they may refer to the Calcutta Review, Vol. 6, p. 569 (No. 
12, for Dec. 1846), in which Colonel Outram's Commentary was no- 
ticed; or to the Quarterly for Oct. 1852, in which most of the facts 
adduced in the Commentary were reproduced in a review of the very 
able and interesting' work entitled " Dry Leaves from Young Egypt." 



132 



Review, whom he has more than once had occasion 
to cite : — 

" The foregoing remarks were written before the 
appearance of Colonel Outranks letter to General W. 
Napier — a letter that was not required to set the 
( Bayard of the Indian Army' (as Sir Charles 
Napier in an inspired moment happily designated 
him) right in the eyes of the Indian public. Still less 
do they require a further vindication of his conduct, 
though they will welcome every item of information 
he may feel justified in giving. We fearlessly assert 
that every right-minded man, acquainted with the 
progress of events during the year 1842, not only 
acquits Outram of the absurd and contradictory 
charges alleged against him by the Napiers, but 
recognizes in his conduct throughout the Scinde 
transactions the spirit of a soldier, a gentleman, and a 

Christian The Napiers accuse Outram of 

jeopardizing the British Army in Scinde ; this is 
mere nonsense. His negotiations, followed up by 
Sir C. Napier's acts, were indeed sufficient to endanger 
his own life. They did so ) and nothing but his own 
brilliant gallantry, and that of his small escort, rescued 
him from the toils. The British Army was able to take 
care of itself. Had Outram, however, when deputed to 
Hydrabad, been permitted the fair discretion that his 
position demanded, his abilities .... and character 
would have secured an honourable peace, &c, &c, &c* 

* Among-st the Appendices to this volume will be found a few- 
remarks on the allegation made by Sir C. Napier's partizans, that 
Colonel Outram on one occasion gave advice which, if followed, 
would have jeopardized the army. 



183 



The anticipated "further vindication" above alluded 
to was contained in u Colonel Outranks Commentary," 
which received a very cordial eulogium from the Cal- 
cutta as from other Reviews, 



134 



VIII. 

SERVICES IN NIMAR AND IN THE SOUTHERN 

MAHRATTA COUNTRY. 

1844—1845. 

Colonel Outram had been only six months hi 
England, when (November, 1843) intelligence was 
received of a revolution at Lahore, and of the murder 
of the Maha-Hajah Shere Sing- : events which, in the 
best informed circles, were considered but the prelude 
to others which must involve the Indian government 
in a war against the Sikhs. Ever on the alert, Outram 
made arrangements for an immediate return to India. 
And, early in January, he reached Bombay, bearing 
with him a letter from the Duke of Wellington to 
the Commander-in-Chief of India, in which he was 
recommended for employment in the anticipated 
Punjab campaign. But on reaching the Governor- 
General's camp, he learned that the storm had 
blown over; that there was no immediate prospect 
of hostilities. He had, therefore, to retrace his 
steps to Nimar, to the political charge and revenue 
management of which he had, in the mean time, been 
nominated by Lord Ellenborough. 

This post was so vastly inferior in importance and 
emolument to those which he had recently held, and 



135 



in which he had acted so distinguished a part, that 
his first impulse was to decline it. But his friends 
represented to him that such a proceeding' would be 
construed into a display of disrespect, both official 
and personal, to the Governor-General \ and they 
reminded him that there was, at that time, no higher 
appointment at his lordship's disposal. He accordingly 
accepted the proffered office 5 but, at the same time, 
intimated to his friends his determination to resign it 
in six months, and to return to England, unless an 
opportunity of serving- in the field should be inter- 
mediately afforded him. 

No such opportunity occurred. And, on the 10th of 
September, 1844 — the day on which he had completed 
his six months' service at Nimar — he resigned his ap- 
pointment, and proceeded to Bombay for the purpose 
of embarking- for England. 

On his arrival at the Presidency, he found that an 
insurrection had broken out in the Southern Mahratta 
Country, which threatened a very unsatisfactory issue. 
He tendered his services to the Government. Thev 
were gladly accepted. And it was intimated to 
him that he would be nominated to the political con- 
trol of the disturbed provinces, in supercession of the 
Commissioner, Mr. Beeves, who being- a Civilian, was 
deemed less eligible than a military officer for such 
a post, while hostilities were in progress. To this 
arrangement Colonel Outram respectfully, but firmly, 
objected. He declined being* made a source of humili- 
ation to a gentleman for whose talents and character 
he entertained a hig-h respect, and who was intimately 
acquainted with the disturbed country, and with the 



136 



condition, character, and feelings of the disaffected 
population. But he expressed his readiness to act 
in conjunction with Mr. Reeves till the termination of 
the war, after which, as he informed Government, it 
was his intention to return to England. Sir George 
Arthur, than whom no one was more capable of 
appreciating* generous traits, expressed, in strong 
terms, his sense of Colonel Outram's moderation, and 
directed him to proceed a on special duty" to the seat 
of war. 

On the 11th of October, Outram arrived in Briga- 
dier Wallace's Camp before Samunghur. He was pre- 
sent at, 8 and assisted in the storm of that Fortress, on 
the morning of the 13th. And he continued, in addition 
to the exercise of his diplomatic functions, to render 
active and important military services in the Field. 
For these he received the grateful acknowledgments 
of General Delamotte, Brigadier Wallace, and the 
other military officers to whom his aid was rendered, 
as well as the cordially rendered applause of his 
Government, who expressed their- "great satisfaction 
that he had thereby an opportunity during the mili- 
tary operations that had been in progress, of display- 
ing those high qualities as a soldier for which he had 
ever been distinguished." 

The clemency displayed by Mr. Beeves and Colonel 
Outram to the vanquished garrison of Samunghur did 
not receive the entire approbation of Government. For 
they long continued to labour under the erroneous 
impression that the amnesty granted by these officers, 
after the capture of the Fortress, had been ex- 
tended to the promoters of the rebellion. And there 



137 



is reason to believe that they were not altogether 
pleased with the apologetic and extenuatory pleas 
which the conjoint Commissioners continued to urge 
in behalf of the rebels, whom they regarded as, in 
many respects, aggrieved men. At all events it was 
deemed proper to renew to Colonel Outram the offer 
of sole and undivided political command. And when 
he declined the proffered distinction, on the plea that he 
contemplated returning to Europe as soon as the war 
was brought to a conclusion, it was bestowed on 
Colonel Ovans, the then Resident at Sattara. Had 
that able officer assumed the appointment thus ten- 
dered him, there is every reason to believe, from the 
nature of several of his subsequent representations 
that he would have pleaded in behalf of the rebels 
with even less reserve than Mr. Reeves or Colonel 
Outram. But he had the misfortune to fall into the 
hands of the enemy while proceeding from Sattara 
to enter on the discharge of his new duties. He 
remained a captive during the subsequent operations ; 
and Mr. Reeves and Colonel Outram continued to act 
as conjoint Commissioners. Their "prudence and firm- 
ness" elicited the warm commendations of Government. 
And the Governor-General of India (Lord Hardinge) 
when expressing his u complete concurrence" in these 
praises, recorded "his entire approbation of Colonel 
Outranks conduct," and " his opinion of the temper, 
judgment, and discretion, which marked Lieutenant- 
Colonel Outranks proceedings on every occasion sub- 
sequent to the seizure of Colonel Ovans." The qualifi- 
cation thus implied of the praise due to Outranks 
proceedings prior to that event, had reference to the 



138 



amnesty which his Lordship, as well as the Bombay 
Government, at that time believed to have embraced 
the fomenters of the rebellion. 

After the storm and fall of the Fortresses of Punalla 
and Pownaghur, both of which Out ram had been 
amongst the first to enter, it was supposed by the 
military commanders that hostilities had been brought 
to a termination. And official intimation having* been 
made by them to this effect, Outram proceeded to 
Bombay, in the middle of December, with the view of 
taking* his passage to England. 

But it soon became apparent that little had been 
achieved beyond the transference of the war from 
the Kolapoor country, situated above the Western 
Ghauts, to the Sawant Waree State, below them. 
Thither had fled the fugitive foes whom General 
Delamotte had dispersed. The disaffected Warree 
population readily joined them. Matters assumed a 
very serious appearance. And the Government were 
glad, once more, to avail themselves of Out ram's ser- 
vices. 

The nature and extent of these services may be 
best described in the words of the writer in the Cal- 
cutta Review, so often quoted in the preceding pages, 
one of the most distinguished political military func- 
tionaries in British India, the able administrator of 
one of its most important territorial divisions, and an 
officer for whom the present Governor-General of India, 
and the present Commander-in-Chief of the British 
Army, entertain much respect and warm personal esteem. 
That, to the uninformed, his testimony may appear 
tainted with the spirit of a partizan, the Reviewer deems 



139 



not improbable ; that such in reality is very far from the 
rase he takes occasion to explain. a The tone of our 
remarks upon Colonel Outram" — thus he writes — u may 
savour of partial panegyric to those of our readers who 
have not followed out Outranks career as we have 
done " but" — he adds — cc no personal feelings can 
mingle in our praise of a man whom we have never 
seen, and whom we know only by his public acts." 

Referring 1 to the insurrection in Sawunt Waree, he 
writes as follows : — 

" Fortunately for Government, the man they wanted 
was at hand. Colonel Outram, who was now, about 
the end of December, at Bombay, with the intention 
of proceeding 1 to Europe, at once forgot past neglect 
and past injuries, and came forward to rescue the 
Government from their difficulties. He volunteered 
to return to the seat of war, and there organize and 
lead a light corps. Nobly did he fulfil the large 
expectations that were now centred in him. Within 
a fortnight he was again in the field, the soul of all 
active measures; his very advanced guard driving* 
before them the half-armed rabble that had kept three 
brigades at bay. 

" Never was the magic power of one man's presence 
more striking than on Outranks return to the seat of 
war. It might seem invidious, were we to dwell on 
the panic that then prevailed at Vingorla and Waree, 
but the slightest glance at the proceedings in those 
quarters will show that the insurgents had inspired a 
ridiculously formidable idea of their own importance. 
All communications had long been cut off \ the posts 
were brought by long sea from Malwan to Vingorla ; 



140 



and many of the inhabitants of this latter place nightly 
took refuge in boats in the harbour. The troops were 
harassed with patrolling" duty, yet the neighbourhood 
was rife with murders and robberies, the perpetrators 
of which sent insulting 1 messages to the authorities. 
On one occasion a religious meeting was dispersed by 
a wag suddenly calling out that the enemy were upon 
them. Vingorla, be it remembered, stands in an open 
country. 

" At Waree, matters were, if possible, still worse ; 
there the troops remained as in blockade, not a soul 
venturing beyond the lines. All outposts were called 
in, and the malcontents permitted to consider them- 
selves masters of the field. When the garrison was 
reinforced by the arrival of the 10th and a part of the 
Bombay Native Infantry, the authorities determined 
to occupy the gorge of the valley of Siva pur, in which 
lay the villages of the insurgent Phund Sawunt, and 
thus cut off this focus of rebellion from the less 
disturbed districts. The scheme was a good one, but 
failed from the manner in which its execution was 
attempted. A detachment of 200 sepoys set out ; 
they were sniped at from the jungle, and one man 
was wounded ; when, instead of closing with the 
enemy, they took post in a sort of enclosure, and were 
soon beset by increased numbers. A reinforcement of 
200 men joined them, but the combined force, after 
losing twenty killed and wounded, retreated to Waree. 
This success, of course, increased the confidence of the 
insurgents, whose insolence was not restrained even 
by the arrival, soon after, of Her Majesty's 2nd 
Regiment. They gave out that they were tired of 



141 



thrashing sepoys, and wished to try the mettle of the 
( Lambs.' They soon obtained an opportunity of 
proving' their mettle, but the sight of that fine corps 
was too much for their nerves. The Europeans were 
then kept idle, first at Waree, then at Dukhun-waree, 
and full scope was given to the activity of the 
enemy. 

"At this juncture Outram landed at Vingorla; where, 
picking up two or three excellent officers, he pushed 
on to Waree, and thence towards Sivapur. From this 
date, the 14th J anuary, matters took a turn • hitherto 
the three Brigades had been playing bo-peep with the 
enemy, and from the tops of the Ghats examining, 
through telescopes, the stockades below, which the 
Commanders did not think it prudent to attack. But 
now, at length, a decided movement was announced for 
hemming in the rebels in the valley of Sivapur. Twelve 
hundred men were placed under Outram, with orders to 
beat up the low ground from Waree towards the forts 
of Munohor and Munsuntosh \ Colonel Carruthers, 
with a Brigade, was to occupy the Sivapur valley on 
the other side of the ridge on which those forts are 
situated \ while Colonel Wallace was, ,on a given day, 
to descend the Ghats; and it was reckoned that his 
troops, dove-tailing with those under the immediate 
command of General Delamotte, would complete the 
encirclement of the rebels. * * * 

*i> *T* ^> #^ 

* # * * # # 

" To return to Colonel Outram. No communication 
was practicable between the troops above and below 
the Ghats, and he was left with his small band to his 



142 



own resources, without definite orders, and with very 
scanty supplies, to carry out the most difficult opera- 
tion of the campaign. Merrily and confidently he 
advanced through the wild sylvan scenes never before 
trod by European foot. The ears of his people were 
now daily saluted by the echo of the Artillery on the 
overhanging* Ghats ; sounds which could only be sup- 
posed to indicate c the tug* of war J above, and loss of 
ribbons and laurels to those below. But such fears 
were soon relieved by finding* that the firing* was only 
Colonel Wallace's long' practice with extra charges 
from the summit of the Elephant Rock at the village of 
Sivapur, some three miles distant in the Concan below. 

a Each day Outram found points of his route stock- 
aded by the enemy, but they never made a stand, the 
advanced guard and skirmishers being* g-enerally suf- 
ficient to disperse the wretched rabble. At length, on 
the 10th of January, a combined movement was 
ordered upon the high peak to the west of Munsun- 
tosh. The main attack was to be made by Colonel 
Carruthers, who, supported by a portion of Colonel 
Wallace's brigade, was to carry some stockades in his 
front, and then move up the Dukhun-waree or Sivapur 
side of the ridge, while Colonel Outram was to make a 
diversion from the Shirsajee or Gotia valley. This 
last detachment performed their part, but on reaching 
the summit of the peak, from which an extensive view 
was commanded, no sign appeared of either brigade. 
They saw the stockades which Colonel Carruthers was 
to have attacked, but which, being* now taken in flank, 
were abandoned — the enemy flying to Munsuntosh, 
within 1,800 yards of which fort Outram had estab- 



143 



lished a post. Colonel Carruthers' brigade had been 
prevented by the nature of the country from taking" 
their full share in the operations of the day. The next 
morning another combined movement was made on the 
village of Gotia, immediately below the forts ; again 
the nature of the country favoured Outram, the ad- 
vanced guard of whose detachment captured the village 
with all its stockades, though very strongly situated. 

a From these brief details we may infer how easily the 
war might have been terminated, months sooner, by 
more decided measures. The enemy had only to be 
reached to be routed. The troops, both Bombay and 
Madras, were ready for their work, but a spirit of 
undue caution and delay prevailed at Head-quarters. 

"We cannot understand how it happened, but Colonel 
Outram was now left, unsupported, to carry on opera- 
tions against Munsuntosh. One of those accidents 
which no human foresight could obviate, frustrated his 
attempt to gain that fortress by a coup de main. He 
carried three stockades below the fort, attempted to 
blow open a gate, failed, and was driven back with 
considerable loss. He held his ground, however, high 
upon the ridge, retained possession of the stockades, 
and was on the eve of again storming the fortress, 
when the enemy evacuated not only Munsuntosh, but 
the adjoining fort of Munohur. Outram had skilfully 
thrown out parties to command the debouches from the 
south and south-west faces of the forts, leaving the 
remaining portions of the cordon to be filled up by the 
brigades. Colonel Wallace, however, failed on his 
part, and thus suffered the rebel chiefs, who had all 
been encaged, to escape over the Sisadrug ridge, close 



144 



to one of his posts, into the Goa territory. Outram 
followed hard upon their track, had several skirmishes, 
took many prisoners, and on one occasion nearly cap- 
tured the Chiefs. Again, he scoured the wild country 
beneath the Ghats, encouraging* the loyal, and beating 
up the disaffected villages. The nature and value of his 
services during the operations we have glanced at, are 
not to be measured by the actual opposition experi- 
enced or loss sustained, but by the estimate formed 
by other commanders of the obstacles and enemy to be 
encountered, and by the fact that the rapid and skilful 
movements of his small detachment terminated, in a 
few days, an organized opposition which had for six 
weeks kept at bay three brigades, differently handled. 
The total silence of Government, and the non-publica- 
tion of any opinion regarding the Sawunt Waree opera- 
tions, might, at first sight, lead to the inference that 
Outranks management gave as little satisfaction as did 
that of his fellow-commanders. But the promotion 
since bestowed on him amply proves that Government 
took the same view of his conduct throughout the cam- 
paign as did General Delamotte, Colonels Brough and 
Wallace, and, indeed, all his comrades. Outranks is 
an almost isolated instance of a man receiving not only 
civil promotion but brevet rank, without his good for- 
tune exciting jealousy \ a remarkable exception, only 
to be explained by his rare qualities as a soldier, and 

his conciliatory demeanour as a man. * * * 

* * * * 

" If our narrative has kept to Colonel Outranks de- 
tachment, it is for the simple reason that they appear 
to have had all the fighting to themselves. No dis- 



145 



credit thereby attaches to the troops under the other 
Commanders, who were always ready for action, and 
who, when opportunity offered, as at Samung'hur and 
Panulla, behaved with the accustomed gallantry of the 
Madras and Bombay Armies. 

u We must wind up this hasty, though perhaps prolix 
sketch of Sawunt-waree affairs. By the capture of 
Munohur and Munsuntosh the streng-th of the insur- 
rection was broken. The strongholds of the rebels 
were taken, their boldest leaders slain or captured, and 
all others, to the number, as already stated, of forty, 
fled for shelter to Goa. Outram was then ag*ain called 
on to act the diplomatist. His parties still followed 
up the remaining* small marauding" bands, while he 
himself proceeded to Goa, and by the union of firmness 
and conciliation, induced the Portuguese authorities to 
remove their sympathizers from the frontier, and to 
substitute a cordon of such troops as would prevent 
the Goa territory being* made the place of ambush 
from which the insurgents should at discretion devas- 
tate Sawunt-waree." * 

The Government, it is true, did not accord unmin- 
g*led praise to all concerned in the Waree campaig-n, 
but they did not fail to bear public testimony to Out- 
ram's services. They declared that — 

" The Lig-ht Field Detachment, under Lieutenant- 
Colonel Outram, particularly distinguished itself." 

a The Governor in Council " — the Order proceeded 
to recite — " also experiences the hig-hest gratification 
in recording* his opinion that the energy, boldness,, 
and military skill displayed by Lieutenant-Colonel 
* Calcutta Review? No. 7, Sept. 1845. 

1st 



146 



Outram, and the rapidity and success which cha- 
racterized all the movements of his detachment, in a 
particular manner entitle him, and the officers and 
men under his command, to the thanks and approba- 
tion of Government." 

And the Commander-in-Chief (Sir T. McMahon) 
when expressing* his entire concurrence in these eulo- 
gies, took occasion to communicate u the high sense 
he entertained of the zeal, ability and energy dis- 
played by Lieutenant-Colonel Outram throughout his 
services, both in the Southern Mahratta Country, and 
in the Sawunt Warree State." 

Still further a to mark his approbation of the 
gallant and energetic spirit in which his late opera- 
tions in the Sawunt Warree territory have been ma- 
under taken, and the ability with which they have been 
carried into execution," Sir G. Arthur, on the 26th 
February 1845, requested Colonel Outranks accept- 
ance of the post of British Resident and Military 
Commandant at Sattara. Outram was induced to 
accept the appointment ; and, on the 3rd of May, his 
negotiations with the Governor-General of Portuguese 
India having been brought to a satisfactory termina- 
tion, and complete tranquillity having been restored 
to Sawunt Warree, he was directed to u proceed to 
assume charge of his appointment as Resident at 
Sattara, where his services were urgently required." 

His delicate negotiations with the Portuguese 
authorities, in which he had been ably aided by 
Captain Frederick Arthur, and by his accomplished 
staff officer Major Stevens, received the approbation 
not only of the Bombay Government, and of Lord 



147 



Hardingc, but of Her Majesty's ministers, who felt 
that, but for the conciliatory policy adopted by 
Colonel Outram, they might have been involved in a 
disagreeable misunderstanding* with the Government 
of Portugal. * 

An impression exists amongst some of Col. Outranks 
friends that his appointment to Sattara was intended 
as an acknowledgment of the extraordinary services 
rendered by him during our Affgiian reverses. It is 
a mistake. Those services remain to the present day 
unrewarded^ and (officially) unrecognized. Sir George 
Arthur had it not in his power to confer any appoint- 
ment, or distinction, commensurate with the merits of 
performances which, according to so high an authority 
as Mr. Elphinstone, a it would be difficult to 'parallel 
in the whole course of Indian Diplomacy T And 
when he bestowed on Outram the highest diplomatic 
and military appointment at his disposal, he took 
especial care that this act of patronage should in 
no way prejudice that officer's hitherto unrequited 
claims, by expressly recording* that the nomination 
was made solely in recognition of, and as a reward for, 
the services rendered by him in 1844-1845. 

* Major Stevens, in recognition of the valuable services rendered 
by him during" the Warree campaign, received from Sir G. Arthur 
the valuable appointment of Commissioner for the affairs of her 
Highness the Baiza Bhaee. Owing to the absence on sick-certifi- 
cate of the senior officers, it was Major Stevens's good fortune, as a 
captain, to lead his regiment into action at the battle of Hydrabad 
For his services on that memorable occasion, he was promoted to 
the rank of major, and received the decoration of the Bath. 



148 



IX. 

SERVICES AS BRITISH RESIDENT AT THE COURTS 
OF SATTARA AND BARODA. 

1845—1851. 

A sufficient commentary on the manner in which 
Colonel Outram acquitted himself of his duties at 
Sattara, is afforded by the fact that he was in May 
1847 selected by Sir G. Clerk, the successor of Sir 
Georg*e Arthur, to fill the post of British Resident at 
Baroda — the highest diplomatic appointment in the 
gift of the Bombay Government. 

The proffered office he accepted with peculiar satis- 
faction. It secured to him a renewed intercourse 
with the people for whose welfare he had laboured so 
earnestly and successfully in 1836-1838. It seemed 
to open to him a wide field of philanthropic use- 
fulness. And he hastened to enter on its duties, 
cheered with brig'ht visions of the lasting* benefits 
which he hoped to confer on the Prince and people of 
Baroda. 

But these visions were not destined to be realized. 
Before he could mature his plans, he was grieved to 



149 



discover that the corruption, which in former days he 
had helped to combat, was not extinct ; that the long 
cherished popular belief in the corruptibility of the 
Bombay Government still survived ; and that this 
belief was not less potent for mischief than he had 
found it to be in 1837. The further he carried his 
inquiries, the more forcibly was the conviction im- 
pressed on his mind. And he saw that till a more 
healthy moral tone could be introduced into the Native 
department of his diplomatic establishment, and a 
more elevated estimate of the integTity of Bombay 
functionaries forced on the Native community, vain 
must be his efforts to promote the mental or material 
improvement of the people. 

Zealously and successfully did he apply himself to 
the important and difficult questions that presented 
themselves for investigation. And the excessive 
mental fatigue he underwent, co-operating with the 
proverbial unhealthiness of Baroda, developed symp- 
toms of an alarming nature. His medical advisers 
deeming a change of climate indispensably necessary 
for his recovery, he proceeded on sick certificate to 
Egypt, in November 1848. And as is well known 
to her Majesty's Ministers and the Indian authorities, 
he was, while in that country, neither idle, nor, as 
reg'ards the public interests, unprofitably engaged. 
The fatigue, hardships, and exposure involved in his 
Egyptian labours, so seriously aggravated his illness, 
that for many months his friends, both in India and 
England, dreaded lest each succeeding 1 mail should 
bring them tidings of his death. But it was other- 



150 



wise ordered. There was yet work in store for him. 
His life was spared. And in the beginning- of 1850 
he returned to India. 

On resuming- his appointment at Baroda, he found 
it necessary to enter on a series of very arduous 
and painful investigations. For, during* his ab- 
sence, circumstances had occurred calculated to 
destroy all confidence, on the part of the natives 
of Baroda, in the integrity of the Bombay Govern- 
ment. 

That body had promulgated decisions which the 
natives knew to be most grossly inequitable, and which 
subsequent investigations prove to have been so. 
Criminals whose extreme o*uiltiness was a matter of 
universal notoriety on the spot, had been treated, 
not with forbearance only, but with favour. Matters 
which to the native mind seemed imperatively to de- 
mand a stern and uncompromising scrutiny, had been 
allowed to pass without investigation. Redress had 
been withheld from oppressed individuals entitled by 
a guarantee" to British protection, while their op- 
pressors had received signal marks of favour from 
the Government. A corrupt native functionary, who 
was well known by the natives of Baroda to have lent 
himself to the promotion of some nefarious acts — who 
had betrayed Colonel Outranks confidence — and who, 
on his treachery coming to light, had applied for per- 
mission to retire on the pension to which his past 
servitude entitled him — had, almost as soon as Colo- 
nel Outram left for Egypt, been reinvested by Go- 
vernment with the functions he had so foully pro- 



151 



stituted. Not satisfied with this extraordinary pro- 
ceeding- — for it was an extraordinary proceedings 
viewed even in the most favourable lig-ht — the Go- 
vernment had in an elaborate despatch, full of gratui- 
tous assumptions and baseless hypotheses, vindicated 
him from the charges made against him by Colonel 
Outram — charges subsequently substantiated before a 
legal tribunal. In doing* so, they had passed on 
Colonel Outram himself severe and unmerited cen- 
sures — censures to the present hour unrevoked, though 
their injustice has long* since been demonstrated. And, 
in arriving* at these startling* results, they had seen tit 
to overlook revelations made to them after Outram 
had sailed for Egypt, which bore the strongest internal 
evidence of truth — which subsequent investigations 
prove to have been strictly true — which the natives 
of Baroda knew to be true when they were ignored by 
Government — and which, whether true or false, ought 
in common decency to have formed the subject of a 
rigorous inquiry. 

These unhappy events, the natives of Baroda, who 
had long regarded the venality of the Bombay Go- 
vernment, or its functionaries, as an axiomatic truth, 
attributed (it is to be hoped the end will shew unjustly) 
to the corrupt influence of one of the members of Lord 
Falkland's Government, who had retired from the ser- 
vice prior to Outranks return from Egypt. And any 
one who takes the trouble to read from page 1400 to 
page 1484 of the Baroda Blue Books, will see that 
there were reasonable grounds for the conclusion at 
which they arrived. They were enabled to adduce a 
most imposing array of circumstantial evidence in 



152 



support of their belief. And the subsequent conduct 
cf Lord Falkland's Government must have appeared 
to them (and it did appear to them) incompatible 
with any hypothesis, save that which assumed that 
his lordship, and his lordship's council, were deter- 
mined to screen their late colleague.* 

For this gentleman, a whose name had come to be 
associated with the foulest of deeds and the vilest of 
men" Colonel Outram entertained a great respect. 
And believing' him to be incapable of conduct un- 
worthy of his high character and exalted position, 
he deemed it due no less to an upright Englishman 
then unable to defend himself, than to the Govern- 
ment he himself served, and the natives within his 
own jurisdiction, to do his utmost to unravel the tissue 
of intrigues which had so seriously compromised the 
prestige of British justice in Guzerat. 

That artifices of a flagitious character had been 
practised, and that the Bombay Government had been 
betrayed into very serious errors, was painfully obvious. 
But the intrigues and treachery which had been in 
operation, he believed to have been confined to 
European and native subordinates. And, by drag- 
ging the real offenders to punishment, he aspired 
to vindicate the character of the functionary whose 
name had (as he supposed) been abused. He 

* The Compiler has met with no notice of the Blue Books, in 
which one tithe of the circumstantial evidence to the prejudice of 
this gentleman (and therefore demanding full explanation at his 
liands) is adduced. The author of u Bombay Briberies " (Wilson^ 
Boyal Exchange) has collected but a few salient points — his limits? 
apparently preventing him from entering into minute details* 



153 



hoped to satisfy the natives that, though the Go- 
vernment might, at times, err in judgment, it never 
swerved from rectitude; that the money, year after 
year, remitted to Bombay for purposes of bribery, 
reached other hands than those for which it was des- 
tined ; and that though, on many occasions, incorrect 
decisions had undoubtedly been given in favour of those 
remitting bribes, the coincidence was a purely acci- 
dental one, and susceptible of satisfactory explana- 
tion. 

He naturally, but as events proved very erro- 
neously, believed that, in the prosecution of these great 
objects, he would receive effective aid and cordial en- 
couragement from the Government. Pure themselves, 
conscious of their purity, and equally convinced of the 
incorruptibility of their late colleague, it was, he con- 
ceived, their obvious interest, as it clearly was their 
duty, to institute a searching investigation into im- 
putations supported by prima facie evidence. The 
further the investigation went, the more clearly would 
their own impugned virtue become apparent, the more 
completely would the integrity of their late colleague 
be vindicated. Thus reasoned Outram, and he 
deemed himself justified in assuming* that the wishes 
of the Government were coincident with their duty 
and their interests. For a few days after his resump- 
tion of his duties at Baroda, they had, under the 
pressure of strong representations, made from distant 
parts of the Presidency, issued a circular letter in the 
following terms. The italics are introduced by the 
Compiler to call the reader's attention to the promi- 
nent points of the circular. 



154 

V 

(c Government has been led to believe that an im- 
pression prevails in some parts of the Mofussil that; 
by means of intrigues at the Presidency^ the arrange- 
ments of the local officers can often be defeated or 
superseded by the parties interested secretly obtaining* 
the friendship of persons in power ; who; it is ex- 
pected; will ; irrespective of right and wrong, interest 
themselves for the party soliciting* their favour; and 
that; by these means; objects are attainable which; it 
left to be sifted and reported on ; in a deliberate and 
regular manner; could never be secured. This species 
of intriguing* is termed, in the Mahrattee and Canarese 
dialects; c making Khutput in Bombay ; 7 and is 
stated to be regarded as a remedy under difficulties 
of whatever kind. It is even held to be considered 
as effectual in obtaining the restoration to place of 
official servants who, for incapacity or dishonesty, 
have been discharged from Government service ; and 
to be even capable of effecting the release from gaol 
of a convicted felon. A belief in the existence of a 
system of this nature is calculated greatly to embar- 
rass the officers of Government; and to undermine the 
confidence of the Ryots in the system under which 
they are governed. I am accordingly directed to 
request that you will have the goodness to eepokT; 
after making any inquiries you may deem requisite, 
whether you have reasons for supposing* that any 
such belief prevails; generally; or amongst any par- 
ticular class of persons within the limits of your 
charge * and if so, that you will offer any suggestions 
that may occur to you as to the best means of eradi- 
cating the same. ,f 



155 



Thus, specially invited — and an invitation of this 
kind is a command — to enter on a task which his own 
sense of duty had already prompted him to undertake, 
Outram applied himself with earnestness to the work 
before him. 

As a preliminary measure, he entreated the Govern- 
ment to revise certain decisions, promulgated during* 
his absence, in favour of men notoriously corrupt, to 
the prejudice of those who had suffered from the un- 
rebuked misdeeds of the corruptionists, and in censure 
of measures he had adopted in his warfare against 
corruption. He showed that these decisions were emi- 
nently calculated to foster the prevalent belief in the 
efficacy of a Khutput made in Bombay" And he ten- 
dered evidence and explanatory statements to prove 
that they were based on imperfect information, on 
erroneous assumptions, and on an oversight of facts, 
declarations, and offers of further elucidation, sub- 
mitted by himself to Government, both orally and in 
writing. 

But his entreaties were in vain. With the excep- 
tion of the Hon. Mr. Willoughby, who recorded 
u Minutes " in favour of inquiry, and, and who, unfor- 
tunately for Lord Falkland, vacated his seat in Council 
while Outranks investigations were in progress, the 
Government evinced a singular want of that zeal for 
inquiry which the terms of their circular letter, taken 
in their natural sense, appeared to denote. They would 
nether revise their decisions, nor assign a reason for 
refusing; to do so. 

The immediate effects of this policy, so difficult to 
reconcile with a belief that the Khutput letter had 



156 



any other object than to secure soothing- replies 
for submittal to Parliament during* the antici- 
pated discussions on the Indian Charter Act, 
were most lamentable. Its indirect results cala- 
mitous. 

Warned by the case of the corrupt head of his 
native establishment, whose honesty the Government 
had censured him for suspecting*, and whom they had 
thrust back into the post which he had betrayed, 
Outram was compelled to submit to the continued 
presence in his office of several clerks, whom he 
knew to be in alliance with the criminals he was 
endeavouring* to unmask ; and who (as has now been 
proved) were in the habit of furnishing* these criminals 
with copies of such documents, on the records of the 
Residency, as related to their affairs. While, o wing- 
to the lax system which obtained in the Government 
Secretariat at Bombay, copies could be surreptitiously 
obtained of all official papers, not even excepting- the 
most recent and most secret "Minutes" of the Governor 
and his Council. Thus did the Baroda corruptionists 
become acquainted, not only with every representation 
made by Outram, but with the disheartening* replies he 
received, and with the feeling's with which the indi- 
vidual members of Government regarded inquiries 
designed for the vindication of their own honour. And 
as Colonel Outram was then eng-ag-ed in unravelling* 
conspiracies for the ruin of individuals entitled to 
British protection, in which the Durbar and the 
leading* nobles and moneyed men of Baroda were 
implicated, it may be readily conceived that the want 
of support he received from Government, was turned 



157 



to good account by those who were directly interested 
in frustrating' his inquiries. 

Perjury is a venial offence in the eyes of the natives 
of Guzerat — bribery and intimidation recognized 
modes of securing- evidence. And when to the influ- 
ence of g'old; and the alternative threat of loss of 
place and false accusations^ is added the plausibly 
authenticated assurance, that by forswearing- himself 
the perjurer will gratify the Government; a tempta- 
tion is held out which few can resist. Such an 
assurance did the guilty individuals afford to all 
whom gold and intimidation were insufficient to 
influence. They had no need to dwell on the argu- 
ments which tended to substantiate their boast; that 
the decisions appealed against b}^ Outram had been 
improperly obtained 5 for the cog'ency of these argu- 
ments had already found universal admission at 
Baroda. But they paraded exultingly, and with 
effect, the failure of Outranks urgent and reasonable 
appeals. And no one who takes the trouble to peruse 
the u Minutes " which his appeals elicited; will wonder 
that the conspirators should have obtained general 
credence; when they pointed to these as proving that 
the Government and themselves mutually understood 
each other ; and as affording- a guarantee that Outranks 
inquiries would be thwarted by the very functionaries 
whom; in the guileless simplicity of a confiding nature, 
he considered most interested in promoting* them. 

A succession of happy accidents enabled the Resi- 
dent to prosecute his investigations; despite the 
intrig-ues by which their frustration was attempted. 
His progress, however; was slow ; his difficulties vast ; 



158 



his disappointments incessant. Over and over again 
did he represent to the Government the embarrass- 
ments he experienced; and oft and urgently did 
he implore them to afford some token of their sym- 
pathy and approbation, with a view to neutralize the 
mischievous effects of the popular belief, that " he 
was working against Government, or rather that 
they were working against him." But his represen- 
tations were unheeded \ many of his most important 
communications remained unanswered ; and the coun- 
tenance and support he so much required, in his 
arduous struggles with a ^ monstrous system of cor- 
ruption, were systematically withheld from him. 

Lord Falkland, indeed, stoutly denies, in more 
than one of his despatches, that he and his Council 
failed to afford Colonel Outra.ni ample aid and en- 
couragement. But the Court of Directors have 
themselves given a sufficient reply to this denial. 
They distinctly state that the Government had u ar- 
rested, in limine, an inquiry which might have 
furnished a clue for the detection of malpractices, 
of the existence of which there can be no doubt." 
And, in another case, they censure the Government 
for having rejected, as " obscure indications, con- 
taining nothing susceptible of being followed out 
to any result," what, in the Court's estimation, u were 
amply sufficient to justify and require a further in- 
vestigation," When the last of their despatches, as 
published in the Baroda Blue Book, was written, the 
Court conceived themselves prevented by official eti- 
quette from pronouncing an opinion on the treatment 
Colonel Outram had received at the hands of Govern- 



159 

ment during* the last two years of his tenure of office ; 
for his Report on Khutput had not come before them 
in what was considered a strictly official manner, the 
Bombay Government having* detained the original 
for upwards of six months, on the ground that they 
would study it in connection with the other reports 
on the same subject, all of which had been in their 
hands very considerably upwards of a year ! But 
thoug*h the Directors were thus, as they believed, 
precluded from pronouncing* on the Khutput Report, 
and on the damaging* revelations it contained relative 
to the proceeding's of the Bombay Government, that 
document is now in the hands of the public, and 
any one who will take the trouble to read from 1400 
to 1484, may satisfy himself whether the two cases 
incidentally cited by the Court were the only in- 
stances in which Lord Falkland and his Council 
embarrassed Outranks investigations —facilitated the 
intrig*ues and evasive artifices of the criminals whom 
he soug*ht to drag* to justice — and inflicted further and 
undeserved injury on those victims of oppression in 
whose behalf he laboured. 

The more earnest Outranks entreaties became, 
and the more his investigations prospered, the more 
curt and unsatisfactory continued to be the communi- 
cations of his Government, and the more unkind the 
lang*uag*e they employed regarding* him in u Minutes 99 
destined for the perusal of the Court of Directors, but 
which there was then little prospect of Outram being* 
ever permitted to see. In their later u Minutes" 
Lord Falkland's Council did not hesitate to hold their 
Baroda Resident up to ridicule, as a credulous," 



160 



"Quixotic," and "ignorant of human nature." And, in 
estimating the exhilarating effects of such " Minutes " 
on the Baroda intriguers, to whom they were regularly 
transmitted hy their agents in the Secretariat, it 
must be borne in mind that the alleged " credulity/' 
"Quixotism/' and "ignorance of human nature/' 
consisted in treating the circular letter on " Khutput" 
as a sincere exposition of the views and wishes of 
Government — in believing that the Government were 
really anxious to ascertain if a belief in Khutput ac- 
tually existed — and in assuming, on the faith of their 
own assertions, that they fully recognized the gravity 
of those evils which they had themselves declared must 
arise from the existence of such a belief; that they 
truly wished inquiries to be carried out on the subject ; 
that they sincerely desired to eradicate the belief, if 
found to exist ; and that they honestly sought to be 
directed to the best modes of effecting so desirable 
an object. 

Nor did the members of the Bombay Council con- 
fine themselves to charging Colonel Outram with the 
mental defects above enumerated. They attributed some 
of the most arduous, important, and successful of those 
labours which subsequently procured for him high 
eulogy from the Court of Directors to " rancorous 
personal feelings" In one of their later " Minutes/' | 
they pronounced him to be out of " his right mind," 
and to be the victim of a " monomania ; " and they 
persisted in accusing him of placing faith in the 
general belief entertained of the corruption of their 
late colleague, despite his assurances to the con- 
trary. This they did, in apparent oblivion of the fact 



101 



that his investigations could only tend to vindicate 
that gentleman's character if he were wrongly as- 
persed; and that their own systematic efforts to em- 
barrass these investigations, when viewed in connection 
with their Khutput Circular, could not possibly fail 
to impress the public with the belief that they dreaded 
inquiry as likely to prove ruinous, if not to their own 
reputation, at least to that of their late colleague. 
And when the personal hostility towards Colonel Out- 
ram, displayed in the e( Minutes" of Messrs. Bell and 
Blane, is considered, the effect of these Minutes, surrep- 
titiously obtained from the Bombay Secretariat by the 
Baroda corruptionists, may be conceived.* 

While Lord Falkland and his colleagues turned a 
deaf ear to all Outranks remonstrances, they denied him 
the benefit of the appeals which he desired to make to 
the Court of Directors. And, thus, the Government 
practically excluded that body from all control over 
Baroda, though well known to have made incessant 
and troublesome, and even puerile references to it on 
matters of detail in other questions which it was their 
duty to have determined on their own responsibility. 
Whether by this arrangement they did or did not (as 
the Bombay correspondent of the Times reported to 
the leading journal) constitute themselves " an instru- 

* The terms " personal hostility " are used advisedly. The 
Compiler defies any honest man, who has read these minutes, to 
lay his hand on his heart and deny that Mr. Bell and Mr. Blane 
do evince a systematic desire to place Colonel Outram in the 
wrong on every occasion, and that they seek for opportunities of 
thwarting and annoying him, and of prejudicing the Court of 
Directors against him. 

M 



162 



merit of resistless tyranny" the readers of the Baroda 
Blue Book must determine for themselves. 

At page 24 of the Baroda Blue Book will be 
found — • 

a A memorandum of letters received from Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Outram, subsequent to his resuming 1 
eharge of his duties at Baroda (on his return from 
Egypt), on the 8th of May, 1850, in which he has 
appealed against the decisions of Government in the 
cases therein alluded to." 

In this document, seven appeals, or packets of 
appeals, are enumerated. An analysis of their con- 
tents — of the important matters hinging on the deci- 
sions in respect of them by the Court of Directors — 
and of the earnest and reiterated requests of Outram 
to have decisions propounded, would tend greatly to 
enlist the sympathy of the reader, and excite his 
astonishment. But the limits of this volume will admit 
of little more than a cursory glance at the periods of 
detention to which they were respectively subjected. 

The first appeal is dated the 30th of July, 1850. 
It referred to a fraudulent transaction (on the part of 
a Bank enjoying the British guarantee during u good 
behaviour") regarding- which the conduct of the 
Bombay Government had been twice commented upon 
by the Court of Directors : on the first occasion, for 
ignoring an offence equivalent to forgery \ and, on the 
second, for so wording* their despatch as to imply that 
attempts had been made to investigate that offence, 
and that no proof of its commission could be obtained, 
whereas the Government well knew when they penned 
the despatch that no inquiry of any kind had been at- 



163 



tempted. It was a case which had powerfully tended to 
lower the character of the Bombay Government in the 
eyes of the natives. It was one to which in a great 
measure was due the fact that the name of one of 
Lord Falkland's Councillors had a come to be asso- 
ciated with the foulest of deeds and the vilest of men" 
It was one on which Colonel Outram was parti- 
cularly anxious to have an early decision. And it was 
one on which the Court had specially called for infor- 
mation. Yet the Appeal was not transmitted for 
thirteen and a half months — not till it had become a 
matter of general notoriety both at Bombay and at 
Baroda that the felony originally ignored by the 
Government, and which, in direct disobedience of the 
Court's orders, they had abstained from investigating 
and punishing, had been established before a legal 
tribunal. 

The second packet of " Appeals " enumerated in 
the u Memorandum/' contained letters written in April 
and June 1850. These, it is true, were forwarded in 
the following October ; but care was taken that no 
benefit should be derived from the home reference. For, 
though the Court's reply was favourable to the view 
taken by Colonel Outram, the Bombay Government 
refused to modify their measures. 

The third packet of documents, dated June and 
July 1850, remained untransmitted till the 3rd of 
December 1852 — that is, until Colonel Outram had 
been removed from his appointment — and therefore 
placed in a position to make a direct appeal to the 
Court of Directors. 

The fourth — a most earnest appeal— in which were 



164 



detailed many of the very startling' and plausible 
reasons assigned by the natives for believing* that 
decisions could be purchased through the influence of 
corrupt members of the Bombay Government, bore 
date the 7th September 1850. But it was detained 
till the 17th of February 1852, six weeks after Out- 
ram's removal from office. 

The 6th, under date the 16th December 1850, was 
not transmitted till December 1852 ; and the letter 
accompanying 1 it was not written till the day on 
which Outram's removal had been resolved on in 
Council. 

The sixth, dated the 31st March 1851, was only 
forwarded on the 17th February 1852, by the steamer 
which bore Outram from Bombay, en route to Eng*- 
land, to submit his grievances to the Court of 
Directors. 

The seventh, containing- the degraded Resident's 
final official protests ag*ainst the treatment which 
he, and those natives who aided him, had received at 
the hands of his Government, was hardly likely to be 
detained. For Outram carried duplicates along* with 
him. Government had, indeed, endeavoured to g*et 
possession of these, and thus to deprive him of the 
means of setting* his conduct before the Directors in 
its true lig*ht without delay. But his remonstrance 
was so reasonable, and so just, that they could find no 
pretext for rejecting* it. 

The validity of the pleas on which the Government 
prevented their Honourable Masters in this country 
from obtaining* any insig*ht into their Baroda policy, 
is a matter on which Parliament has authorized the 



165 



public to form and make known their opinions. And 
considerable uniformity of opinion, in reference to this 
subject^ will probably be found amongst the independent 
readers of the Blue Books. 

Disheartening* to the last degree had been Outranks 
position, since his return from Egypt : his representa- 
tions unheeded at Bombay \ his appeals to the Direc- 
tors untransmitted ; and the intrigues and insolence 
of the corruptionists, whose crimes he endeavoured to 
expose, daily acquiring vigour and development. For 
daily did the belief gain ground — and daily were fresh 
embarrassments arising from the belief — that the 
Government, enraged at the success with which he 
had unmasked a villain, in whose behalf they had 
penned the elaborate, ingenious, but unsatisfactory 
defence previously alluded to, and alarmed at the dis- 
closures he contrived to effect without their assistance, 
and in spite of the obstacles they threw in his way 
— had resolved to disgust him into resignation of his 
appointment, or to goad him into some act of insub- 
ordination, which should afford a pretext for his re- 
moval. And so confident were the corruptionists on 
this point, that, as Outram himself, from time to time, 
reported to Government, they engaged in a systematic 
system of subornation, of perjury, to be made use of 
so soon as his removal was effected, with a view to 
injure his own reputation, to ruin those honest natives 
who had rendered him assistance, and to procure a 
reversal of the convictions which his labours had 
resulted in establishing*. These conspiracies were 
commenced in the summer of 1850 \ they were con- 
tinued with varying' industry up to the hour of his 



166 



removal ; after that event, they were renewed with 
increased vigour ; and, as the Government was duly 
apprised, upwards of one full year before his re- 
moval, the conspiracies embraced clerks in his own 
office — men who bore him a deadly grudge for the 
honest zeal which interfered with their unhallowed 
gains, but whom he had no power to dismiss without 
the sanction of Government. 

But discouraging as was Outranks position, during 
the events now hastily sketched, he lost not heart. 
He felt assured that justice would be done him by 
the Court of Directors, so soon as they should be 
made aware of the real merits of the case. And he 
resolved that they should have an opportunity of 
forming an impartial judgment. 

Past experience had taught him the futility of ordi- 
nary u appeals \ " but, in common with all the heads 
of offices, he had received a copy of the circular letter 
adverted to in page 153. The replies it elicited must, 
he knew, be transmitted to the Honourable Court ; 
and, in the preparation of his own Report, he took 
care to introduce a detailed account of the investiga- 
tions he had conducted, and of the obstructions he had 
encountered, since his return from Egypt. 

But though satisfied that his Report must be, 
eventually, submitted to the Court of Directors, he 
was aware that great delay invariably occurred in the 
transmission of such documents. His papers, more- 
over, were voluminous ; and the tardiness with which 
briefer documents had been replied to by the Govern- 
ment, led him to fear that much time would elapse 
ere Lord Falkland and his Council pronounced even 



167 



an interim opinion on the subject of his appeal. 
Daily were fresh embarrassments arising* from the 
increasing* confidence and boldness of the corruptionistSc 
And he accordingly deemed it his duty, when trans- 
mitting- his Report, to represent once more the urgency 
of his position, and the painful necessity that existed 
for disabusing* the minds of the people of Baroda 
of the conviction under which they laboured, that, 
by thwarting" his investigations, screening" villany, 
and harassing* those who aided in its exposure, 
they gratified the Government, and promoted its views. 

The reply to this communication was an order to 
resign his appointment 5 and, as those who will take 
the trouble to examine the Blue Books will discover, 
circumstances had occurred a few days prior to the 
transmission of that order eminently calculated to 
satisfy the public that the immediate cause of the 
Resident's summary removal was the fact of his 
having obtained something like a clue to the dis- 
covery of the conspiracy for buying over the Govern- 
ment — a conspiracy Outranks investigation of which 
the Government had already a arrested in limine." 
Nor was this belief likely to be shaken by the intense 
anxiety subsequently evinced by the Government to 
hasten his departure from Baroda, though his official 
resignation was not to take effect for some time 
after. 

In notifying to him his removal from office, the 
Government entered into a long series of observations, 
justificatory of the step. To these Outram replied in 
a letter,* which most readers will deem tolerably 

* Vide Appendix. 



r 

168 

conclusive — and so conclusive did the Bombay 
Government consider it, that, in their subsequent 
communications to the Court of Directors, they saw 
fit to depart from much that they had originally 
stated.* The four charges on which they eventually 
justified Colonel Outranks removal, were — 

1st. — That he had displayed such an absence of 
u respect " for, and u confidence " in, the Government 
he represented, as disqualified him for discharging 1 
the duties of his office. 

2nd. — That he appeared to have formed a most 
erroneous idea of his rights and duties of his position 
as Resident. 

3rd. — That he had shown he did not possess the 
tact, calmness of mind, and discretion, indispensable 
to the satisfactory maintenance of our political rela- 
tions with the Guicowar. 

4th. — That he had (C persisted in proceeding's dic- 
tated by the sentiments evinced in the letter attached 
to the Khutput Report, and not only solely by indit- 
ing* that letter." 

To this last charge, the Court of Directors have 
replied as follows : — 

u We do not perceive, in the papers sent to us, 
any instance of Lieut. -Colonel Outram having* per- 

* Vide Appendix, where will be found detailed the tissue of 
contradictions and of inaccuracies in 'point of fact, in which the 
Government involved itself when endeavouring* to assign a valid 
reason for dismissing the Resident who had sent in an unan- 
swerable appeal against themselves, and who was apparently on 
the eve of tracing out the conspiracies, his investigations into which 
they had endeavoured to " arrest in limine V 



169 



sisted in proceedings which he had been instructed by 
his Government to discontinue." 

As the whole of Outranks investigations are 
detailed in his Khutput Report, the reader must 
judge for himself whether the more appropriate 
reward of the proceedings which proved offensive 
to the Honourable Messrs. Blane and Bell, was his 
dismissal from office, or the eulogy bestowed by the 
Court of Directors on u the zeal, energy, ability, and 
success," with which his inquiries were conducted. 
And, in estimating the value of Lord Falkland's 
denial that he and his Council failed to give Outram 
every legitimate aid and support, let it be kept 
in mind, that the Council have put their seal of con- 
demnation on the official proceedings for which aid 
and support were implored. To suppose that they 
intentionally rendered the slightest aid, encourage- 
ment, or support, to investigations of which they 
disapproved, is to suppose them to have been guilty 
of a dereliction of duty. That their doctrines and 
practice were in perfect harmony no reader of the 
Baroda Blue Books requires to be told. 

The third charge the Court of Directors utterly 
ignored, in their reply to the Bombay Government. 
It is, therefore, only reasonable to infer that they 
recognized in Outranks conduct, through a trying 
period of two years, those qualities of which it is 
alleged he displayed an absence. And any one who 
may take the trouble to read the minute narrative, 
given in his Khutput Report, of his several investi- 
gations, and of his various communications with the 
Bombay and Guicowar Governments, will marvel 



170 



at a the tact " and " discretion " he manifested, under 
circumstances well calculated to betray him into 
haste. Nay, even the Bombay Government them- 
selves were constrained to bear testimonv to the fact, 
that in not one of his acts had he done aught capable 
of giving" just umbrage to the Court at which he 
resided, though that Court was engaged in bringing 
dishonour on the British name. Thus, on the day 
of the receipt of the intelligence of Outranks removal, 
the Guicowar was induced, at the instance of the 
Minister who had attempted the bribery of high 
functionaries, to transmit a petition to Bombay, com- 
plaining of certain acts of the ex-Resident ; yet the 
Government which recorded the censure now under 
notice, were compelled to reply, that the proceedings 
remonstrated against u appear to have been merely 
a request for the attendance of certain parties at 
the Residency for the purpose of inquiry, and that 
Government trusts that no deviation from the usual 
courtesy, in promptly complying with such requests, 
will ever be permitted by His Highness to occur/' 

The inquiry in question was one of those which the 
Bombay Government had " arrested, in limine. 97 
That it was so arrested, the guilty Minister obtained 
early and accurate intelligence. He had, on the 
strength of this arrest, determined to render nugatory 
the clue of which, despite the proceedings of Govern- 
ment, Outram had obtained possession. And, with 
this view, he had ventured to violate the " usual 
courtesy " observed on such occasions. 

I shall cite but another testimony on the pq£t of 
the Bombay Government to the "tact," "discretion," 



171 

and u calmness of mind/' which Outram displayed 
while unravelling* a foul conspiracy in which the 
courtiers, nobles, and leading* merchants of Baroda 
were concerned, having* for its object the ruin of a 
rich widow entitled to British protection. In his 
66 Minutes" on this case, after taking* many exceptions 
to the views, recommendations, and comments, con- 
tained in the Resident's Report, Lord Falkland 
wrote thus : — 

a I now turn to the case itself, which, the more 
it is studied, must more and more impress the mind 
with admiration of the extraordinary ability and pati- 
ence displayed by Colonel Outram in investig*ating* the 
obscure and secret conspiracies which are the subject 
of his Report, dated 30th March 1851, in baffling* 
native intrig*ue on its own ground, and in unravelling* 
with much ingenuity, if not alwa}-s successfully, the 
frauds, perjuries, and mass of contradictory deposi- 
tions, which have been taken and committed from the 
period when Lar Bhae's first petition was presented to 
Government in 1847, up to the date of Baba Nafra's 
trial and conviction in Aug*ust 1850. 

"The task he undertook to perform may, indeed, 
be termed an extraordinary one. Once persuaded 
that Joitoe Bhae ? s tale was true, and that she was the 
victim of a foul conspiracy, he has alone and unaided 
stood by her ; has opposed the active machinations of 
her powerful enemy, deriving* a strong* support, as they 
must have done, from their success with the Acting- 
Resident, and throug*h him with this Government \ has 
openly met the secret hostility of the Baroda Dur- 
bar ; and finally he seems to have unveiled the do- 



172 



mestic treachery of the Native Agent, which would 
appear to be but too clearly established by the facts 
and reasoning" of this report." 

The ce minute" from which the foregoing* passages 
are extracted, bears date the 10th of November, up- 
wards of a fortnight before Colonel Outranks removal 
had been resolved on. The " letter" based on it, and 
which it was Outranks duty to file in the records of 
the Residency, there to remain in perpetual testimony 
against himself, was not written for some da}^s after 
the occurrence of that event. Though every expres- 
sion of doubt or censure contained in the a minute," 
was incorporated in the letter, it was not deemed ad- 
visable that the outburst of admiration extorted from 
the Governor, even in the exercise of a severe cri- 
ticism, should be placed on record. Contrary there- 
fore to invariable usage it was suppressed. And but 
for the publication of the Blue Books, Colonel Outram 
would not have been in a position to adduce Lord 
Falkland's own testimony, when vindicating himself 
from his Lordship's charge of want of " tact," " calm- 
ness of mind," and "discretion."* 

We have seen that one of the four charges on 

* The magnanimity of Lord Falkland's Council may be judged 
of, when it is mentioned that very many paragraphs of the " letter 71 
above alluded to, are devoted to show that Colonel Outram " was 
himself resjjonsiblefor much of the lady's stiff erings ! 1 ! Colonel 
Outram vindicated himself from this monstrous and unjust charge 
in a document pronounced by the Court of Directors to be con- 
clusive and triumphant. Yet in doing so he only mentioned facts 
as well known to the Government as to himself. And, in spite 
of this conclusive reply, the Government still adhered to their 
original accusations ! 



173 



which the Bombay Government justified Colonel 
Outranks degradation is rejected by the Court of 
Directors, as inconsistent with the evidence before 
them 5 and that while they utterly ignore a second of 
these charges, the body who preferred it have afforded 
testimony against it. Let us proceed to the third. 

It is to the effect that Colonel Outram had formed 
an erroneous idea of his rights and duties as Re- 
sident. This charge the Court of Directors have ad- 
mitted to be established in respect of one single in- 
stance. But in that instance they take care to show 
that not the slightest inconvenience was, or could have 
been experienced. And the reader will probably de- 
rive some amusement from an examination of the 
passag-e in which the admitted error was betrayed. 

After detailing many of the difficulties of his posi- 
tion at Baroda — difficulties greatly enhanced by the 
proceedings of the Guicowar's unprincipled minister — 
Outram thus proceeded : — 

" Had I been on those terms with my own supe- 
riors, to which, in former days, I had the honour to 
be admitted, as well by the local as by the Supreme 
Government, I should, at a very early period of my 
intercourse with the minister, have pointed out to His 
Highness (the Guicowar) the necessity— for the honour 
of his own Raj — of selecting another adviser. In 
doing this I should have done no more than any other 
Resident in India in a similar position would have 
deemed himself justified in doing; I should have been 
rendering an essential service to the Guicowar ; and 
I should have diminished that intrigue and corruption 
which tend so much to compromise the character of 



174 



the British Government in the eyes of the natives. 
But I felt keenly that I was not admitted to that con- 
fidence, and friendly consideration on the part of Go- 
vernment, which it was once my honour to enjoy. 
I feared that my conduct might be censured, and my 
recommendations unsupported. And in such a case 
I was well aware that intrigues would multiply, and 
attempts be made to involve me in a dispute with the 
Durbar, with a view to my removal from a post where 
I am a source of inconvenience and alarm to the 
traders in corruption. I have, therefore, been con- 
strained to meet the minister in his own fashion, and 
to assume his own cordial demeanour ; to express sa- 
tisfaction for such trifling* aid as, for appearance sake, 
he has rendered me \ and to appear ignorant of his 
secret opposition." 

And after similar remarks — which of themselves 
would seem to be a sufficient reply to the allegations 
of the Bombay Government, that he was deficient in 
the tact and calmness requisite for maintaining our 
political relations with the Guicowar — Colonel Outram 
proceeded to express a hope that the Government 
would u authorize" him to request His Highness to 
select another minister. 

The passage in which the Court of Directors admit 
that Colonel Outram evinced a misapprehension of his 
rights and duties as Resident, is that in which he 
intimates u what he would have done 7 ' if, "enjoying 
the confidence and kindly consideration of Govern- 
ment" accorded to him by previous Governments 
during the last thirty years, he could have relied on 
his conduct being approved, and his recommendations 



175 



being" supported. On this passage the Directors 
observe : — 

" To have taken so grave a step (as recommending 
the Guicowar to dismiss a corrupt minister who had 
aspired to bribe high British functionaries; and who 
had aided in the persecution of British subjects) would 
far exceed the powers of a Resident ; and would re- 
quire for its justification the probability that some 
great public evil would ensue from the short delay 
necessary for a reference to Government. In the 
present case there was no such necessity; and if 
Colonel Outram had acted as he thought he had the 
power to act ; he WOULD; on that ground, have merited 
a severe mark of our displeasure. For he must have 
been aware that the right vested by treaty in a British 
Resident; of giving advice to a Native Prince; is to 
be exercised by him in strict subordination to his own 
superiors; and that it is a breach of duty to take any 
step which can have the effect of committing Govern- 
ment to a particular course of policy; without having 
previously assured himself of their approbation." * 

* In the Appendix will be found a summary of the very 
extraordinary self-contradictions — transparent fallacies — incorrect 
assertions — illogical reasoning's — and what to the Compiler appear 
most disingenuous qnibblings by which the Government endea- 
voured to show, first, that nothing had been proved against the 
so-called minister, though they had before them evidence of his evil 
doings y and then that the same arguments which, under less gross 
circumstances, had by Sir G. Arthur been deemed sufficient to 
justify his calling the Guicowar to change his " agent," did not 
exist in the present case. I have said the u so-called minister" — 
for, as Government knew, the Guicowar had resisted all their 
attempts to induce him to appoint a responsible minister. Bhow 
Tambekur was only, and is only, a " Carbarry," or head agent. 



176 



But Colonel Outram had not so acted as to render 
himself obnoxious to the Court's censure. He had 
scrupulously abstained from exercising* any of his 
rights as Resident, save in strict subordination to his 
immediate superiors. He had at no time, and in no 
manner or degree, committed his Government to a 
particular course of policy. And the formal acquies- 
cence of the Court of Directors in the allegations of 
the Bombay Government, to the extent of admitting- 
that, in one single instance, Colonel Outram did theo- 
retically over-estimate his liberty of individual action, 
appears to have been intended to indicate that they 
regarded as invalid the plea for his degradation, de- 
rived from his assertion of what he would have done 
under circumstances the very reverse of those$ the 
existence of which he deplored. The Court's sentence 
must, in fact, be regarded as a virtual acquittal. 

The only charge on which they have really recorded 
a verdict of guilty against Colonel Outram, is that of 
having evinced a want of u respect" for, and cc con- 
fidence" in his Government. And it is obvious, from 
the whole tenor of their despatch, that (as the Bom- 
bay Government could not fail to know) they would 
never have given their assent to the degradation of 
their Resident on these grounds, had the Government, 

And though he is invested with powers which enable him to exer- 
cise, to the prejudice of British wards and subjects, all functions of 
a Prime Minister — and though the Government wrote of him as 
though he possessed the rank, dignity, and international claims and 
position of a Prime Minister — they are well aware that he possesses 
none of these; that he is exactly in the same position as the 
Carbarry whom Sir G. Arthur insisted on the Guicowar dismissing. 



177 



before adopting* so strong* and so unusual a measure, 
made a reference to England. Nay, further, it is a 
legitimate inference from the words of their despatch, 
that if Outranks Khutput Report had been before 
them officially — if it had been competent for them to 
enter into his long* catalogue of complaints — they 
would have promulgated a decision much more gra- 
tifying* to himself, and much less soothing* to Lord 
Falkland in Council, than that which now stands on 
record. The Bombay Government, as has been 
already stated, had not in the end of June 1852, trans- 
mitted to the Court the replies given to their import- 
ant circular of May 1850, though most of these re- 
plies had been considerably upwards of a year in their 
hands. And till the replies in question, with the com- 
ments of Government, were forwarded to the Court, 
that Honourable body deemed itself bound in official 
courtesy to assume that the Government had much to 
offer in their own justification in respect of Colonel 
Outranks complaints. But, while giving* due weigiit 
to this consideration, the Directors clearly enoug*h 
imply their belief, that if Colonel Outram's language 
evinced less respect and confidence than official usage 
prescribes, the treatment he had received had been 
calculated to provoke him. They thus write : — 

u Lieutenant-Colonel Outram appears to have la- 
boured under the impression that he was not sup- 
ported by Government, in his exertions for the de- 
tection of corrupt practices, and that the supposition 
that Government looked with disfavour on these ex- 
ertions prevailed widely at Baroda, and had a tendency 
to defeat the object of his investigations. But in 

N 



178 



communicating- to you the impression made on his 
mind, Lieutenant-Colonel Outram ought to have ex- 
pressed himself with the deference due from a sub- 
ordinate officer to the Government which he serves. 
In this he failed. We are of opinion that the com- 
munications of Lieutenant-Colonel Outram were not 
conveyed in terms consistent with that respect for the 
Government he was serving which ought to be ob- 
served in all such representations." 

It is in the power of all who wish to form an 
opinion for themselves, to judge of the nature of the 
language made use of by Colonel Outram in his 
latter communications; and of these only, is a com- 
plaint made. And, in judging of his language, they 
will not fail to bear in mind that he was addressing 
a Government who had turned a deaf ear to all 
his representations ; refused him the aid he so earn- 
estly entreated ; arrested some of his most important 
inquiries; and prevented him receiving that support 
from their common masters, which the Blue Books 
satisfactorily prove he would have received, had his 
appeals been forwarded. They will bear in mind 
that those inquiries which were embarrassed by the 
proceedings of Government, were inquiries which 
the Directors truly pronounce to have been very im- 
portant; that they had for their object the punish- 
ment of conspirators against British honour and 
British justice; the redress of foul and terrible 
wrongs endured for years by individuals entitled to 
British protection ; the vindication of the impugned 
honour of the Government themselves; the erasure 
of reproaches reflected from the Bombay Government 



179 



in consequence of the acts of that Government, on 
the Court of Directors itself 3 the clearance of his 
own character from erroneous imputations cast on 
him in his absence, of which he had an absolute 
indefeasible right to claim an official withdrawal, 
on cause being' shown, and which, to this hour, are 
not withdrawn, though their injustice has been 
demonstrated; and the exposure and reform of a 
system of treachery and corruption, in the most 
important department of the Secretariat, which had 
for years flourished under the very shadow of the 
Council Chamber.* They will not fail to notice that 
the language assigned as the reason for dismissing' 
Colonel Outram, just as he appeared on the eve of 
successfully prosecuting* inquiries, which the Govern- 
ment had u arrested in limine" was far less strong 
than that employed by him in 1838, when the evils 
which he deplored were triflings as compared with 
those which he sought to remedy in 1852 • when he 
had not achieved those public services which he was 
enabled to render between 1839 and 1845 ; and 
when, consequently, he and his representations were 
entitled to less consideration and deference. They 
will keep in view the important fact, that while 
Colonel Outranks proceedings, and the a zeal, energy, 
ability, and success," with which they were con- 
ducted, are extolled by the Court of Directors, the 

* That by exposing the shameful abuses existing in their de- 
partments, Colonel Outram incurred the ill-will of the Secretaries 
(who, as is well known, are 'practically members of the Govern- 
ment), must be very obvious to every careful reader of the 
Blue Books. 



180 



Government who dismissed him have been directly 
censured^ in some respects — indirectly reproved in 
many — and commanded to resume those inquiries 
which they awhile arrested. They will reflect on the 
fact, that it was Outranks painful but undeniable 
duty, not to the Bombay Government only, but to 
the Court of Directors, the British nation, and, 
above all, the Natives under his protection, to explain 
to the Government the extent and origin of the 
universal and practically mischievous belief in their 
corruptibility that prevailed in his districts ; and that, 
in pressing* the unpalatable truth on his superiors, 
he over and over again protested his own convictions 
of their unblemished purity, and over and over again 
reiterated with much earnestness, that though he 
felt his Reports must give pain, he begged that he 
might not be supposed to be wanting* in respect. 

And bearing" all these points in mind, they will 
cordially concur in the following- sentiments expressed 
by the Court of Directors in their reply to the 
Bombay Government : — 

66 But/' add the Court, in continuation of the 
remarks above quoted, cc we regret that you did not 
take an early opportunity of reprimanding* him, and 
requiring* him to withdraw any objectionable expres- 
sions which rendered him justly liable to your 
censure." 

That Colonel Outram did not contemplate disre- 
spect, that his conscience acquitted him of intentional 
disrespect, are facts sufficiently proved by the care he 
took in framing- his Report on Khutput, specially de- 
signed for the perusal of the Directors, to quote from 



181 



all his strongest and most earnest appeals. That he 
would have readily divested his reports of all offensive 
expressions, on their being* pointed out to him, is 
clearly implied by the Court in the passage just 
quoted. It is equally implied in the previous decla- 
ration of the Court, that, in no instance, had Colonel 
Outram persisted in proceedings which he had been 
ordered to discontinue. And it was a conclusion 
which their past experience would have justified the 
Government in forming. 

In April 1851, Colonel Outram had forwarded to 
Government a very strong Appeal, in which he 
showed them the strong mass of circumstantial evi- 
dence with which the Natives justified their belief 
in the corruptibility of Bombay functionaries, and 
the extent to which the recent proceedings of Govern- 
ment had strengthened that belief. 

After forwarding* this Appeal, Colonel Outram pro- 
ceeded to Bombay, to endeavour, by personal solicita- 
tions, to effect those public measures which had been 
denied to his official entreaties. And he was (privately) 
informed by his friends in office that his Appeal had 
made a deep impression in Council ; that the Govern- 
ment were now satisfied of the necessity of supporting 
him; but that there were some expressions in his 
letter which had been personally distasteful to the 
Governor \ and that, by the very minuteness and am- 
plitude of his proofs, he placed the Government, as it 
were, in the disagreeable position of standing on their 
defence, or of appearing to be driven into acts which 
ought to appear spontaneous. And it was sug- 
gested to him that a solution of the Baroda diffi- 



182 



culties — satisfactory to himself, and not humiliating- to 
Government — might be secured by his offering" to 
modify his Report. He accordingly waited on his 
Lordship, assured him of the respect he entertained 
for him, and declared his readiness to do so. Lord 
Falkland expressed himself gratified, and confident 
that the Baroda questions would be disposed of to 
the satisfaction of all parties. Outram, hastening* 
to the Secretariat, called for his Reports, erased the 
words which he was told had annoyed the Gover- 
nor, and struck out whole paragraphs and pages of 
its most cogent matter. He left nothing* undone 
which was calculated to give to the change of policy 
he had been led to expect, the appearance of being 
the uncompelled and spontaneous act of Government. 
He had, however, barely returned his emasculated 
Report, when the Government adopted proceedings 
which were in direct opposition to those he had been 
led to anticipate, and which tended more and more 
to rivet on the Native mind at Baroda the belief 
which he was endeavouring to eradicate. 

Thus, as we have seen, a theoretical mistake which 
led to no practical results, and required but to be 
pointed out ; and the employment, under circum- 
stances of unwonted difficulty, of strong language, 
which a reprimand would have prevented his repeat- 
ing, are the only two faults on Colonel Outranks 
part conceded by his Honourable Masters. In 
making this concession, they take care to extol the 
u zeal, energy, ability, and success " of labours which 
were throughout unaided, and sometimes impeded, by 
his Government. And they vindicate him from cen- 



183 



sures and aspersions, cast on his proceedings and 
motives by the Government who dismissed him. 

In addition to the indirect censure thus cast on the 
Government, they more than once pass open con- 
demnation on that body for thwarting inquiries it was 
their duty to promote. And there are few readers of 
the Blue Books who will not feel assured that, had 
the Honourable Court been in a position to comment 
on Colonel Outranks Khutput Report, the condemna- 
tion would have been more severe, more extensive, 
and more emphatic. 

In concluding- their despatch, the Court addressed 
the Government in the following* words : — 

u Taking* this view of the case, we express our hope 
that, when Lieutenant-Colonel Outram shall return to 
India, you will find a suitable opportunity of employ- 
ing* him where his talents and experience may prove 
useful to the public service." 

The Court were well aware that, with the exception 
of the Commissionership of Sind — which is not likely 
to be vacant for many years — the Baroda Residency 
is the only appointment in the gift of the Bombay 
Government which Colonel Outram could accept with- 
out official humiliation, and without such degradation 
in the eyes of the Native and European community 
as would seriously injure his usefulness. To have 
ordered Lord Falkland to replace Outram in the 
position he had filled with a zeal, energy, ability, and 
success," and from which he had been removed on 
the pleas we have just investigated, might possibly 
have appeared tantamount to recalling his Lordship. 
There were reasons, both political and personal, why 



1-84 



so extreme a measure should be avoided. And, 
viewing' the whole context of the case, it appears 
reasonable to suppose that the Court's language was 
adopted with a view to enable Lord Falkland to 
reinstate Colonel Outram in such a manner as to give 
the reinstatal the appearance of a voluntary act. 

Had Colonel Outranks brevet lieut.-colonelcy taken 
place on the 2nd June 1840, as he had reason to ex- 
pect from official and private communications, he 
would now have been in a position to claim a Divisional 
Command 5 and he might have returned to India, 
careless as to whether Lord Falkland chose to act 
on the intelligible hint given to him by the Court. 
But these expectations were not fulfilled ; and every 
sincere friend of Outram strongly dissuaded him from 
placing himself in a position to be insulted by Lord 
Falkland's Government. There was no guarantee 
that the Governor would comply with the obvious 
wishes of the Directors. And though the known 
honourable sentiments and high spirit of his Lord- 
ship afforded a strong presumption that he would 
wish to restore Outram to the post in which he had 
rendered such signal services, he must have a high 
estimate of human nature, who would attribute similar 
inclinations to his Lordship's colleagues. Gentlemen 
who could pen such Minutes as have been noticed 
in the foregoing- pages, were likely to form peculiar 
notions respecting the official post most u suitable " 
to a u monomaniac " — a man under the influence 
of u rancorous personal feelings" And they were 
not likely to replace him in a position where he 
must be entrusted with the conduct of those inquiries 



185 



which they had deemed him worthy of disgrace for 
instituting", which they themselves had been repri- 
manded for " arresting- in limine" and to the reinves- 
tigation of which they have, much to their anno} T ance 
and humiliation, been ordered to lend their best aid 
and energies. 

It is not within the scope of these cc Memoranda " 
to allude to the grave questions rendered moot-points 
by the publication of the Baroda Blue Books ; to in- 
quire if it be justice to the natives of India to main- 
tain, on enormous salaries, European Residents whose 
functions (as recognized by the Bombay Government) 
might be adequately performed by subaltern officers, 
on salaries of £600 per annum ; to ask whether the 
" support 99 of controlling bodies is more worthily 
due to the zealous executive officers who carry out 
their views, or to the administrative boards that 
thwart their wishes ; to inquire what course the East 
India Directors deem open to a faithful public servant, 
whose efforts are frustrated, and whose appeals to 
themselves are suppressed by the local authorities; 
to raise a discussion on the degree to which the 
acts of the Bombay Government have tended to 
make the British name odious and contemptible in 
Western India; or to point to the many indignities 
with which Outram's zeal has been rewarded — the 
unjust censures that still remain on record against the 
officer whose public services have been recorded in 
the preceding* pages — or the improbability of any 
other servant of the Bombay Government being found 
likely to incur the humiliation and pecuniary losses 
which have, in his case, been the result of carrying 

o 



186 



out the wishes of his honourable masters, despite the 
antagonistic influence of his more immediate superiors. 

All these are g'rave points, which may, and pro- 
bably will, be slurred over by the English public 
for the present ; for they are points broug'ht to issue 
in a controversy between, on the one hand, a body 
possessing* powerful influence with those on whom the 
decision rests, headed by a nobleman having many 
alliances, both political and personal, and on the 
other, a soldier who has no weight save that which 
his own merits have achieved, and no friends save 
those whom his virtues have secured to him. But they 
are points which will one day claim and obtain eluci- 
dations, if not in time to avert, at all events to ex- 
plain national calamities* They do not, however, bear 
directly on the subject of Colonel Outranks services ; 
and they are, in the mean time, left to those publicists 
whose more immediate province it is to discuss them. 

But it may not be uninteresting to the readers 
of this volume to be informed that, in addition to 
the anxiety and humiliations which Colonel Outram 
has had to undergo, in consequence of the not very 
heavy faults conceded to his accusers by the Court 
of Directors, he has been subjected to a pecuniary 
fine of upwards of £4,000. His salary, as Resident 
at Baroda, was of nearly that amount. Since the 
1st of February, 1852, he has been placed on 
the allowances of a regimental Major. And the 
diminution of income thus incurred, is but a por- 
tion of the pecuniary mulct inflicted on him b} r 
the Bombay Government. For the loss sustained by 
the necessity of suddenly breaking up his establish- 



187 



ments, and proceeding' to this country to plead his 
own cause, and that of the afflicted victims of 
Baroda corruption, cannot be estimated at a lower 
sum than £1,000. < 

To some, these may appear mere and vulgar trifles 
undeserving* of notice. And as such they will proba- 
bly be regarded by Outram himself whose liberality, 
carelessness of self, and contempt of money, have 
kept him poor while controlling wealth, and whose 
conscience made him allot to a charity, the prize- 
money assigned to him for the conquest of Sind. 
But there are others who will note them with in- 
terest, as affording another illustration of the pecu- 
liar fate which has through life adhered to Outram. 
Not once, but many times, has he been called on 
to make grievous sacrifices for principles which others 
shrunk from enunciating — principles which were 
eventually destined to find public recognition and 
acceptance — but in the recognition and acceptance 
of which he, his merits and his sacrifices, have in- 
variably been overlooked.* v 

* It will not fail to be observed that in all the documents 
and discussions relative to Colonel Outram (that have as yet 
been laid before the public), the utmost that has been urged 
in his favour is in extenuation of his so-called offences, and 
in mitigation of the punishment supposed to be due to him for 
telling unpalatcable but momentous truths in plain language. It 
seems to have been overlooked by those who have treated of 
the matter, that not only the Court of Directors, but the British 
Parliament and the British Nation, owe no small debt of gratitude 
to the officer whose incredible labours, under most disheartening* 
circumstances, in a deadly climate, have resulted in the exposure 
of astounding* and melancholy abuses, and in the reformation of 




ft 



188 



In conclusion, it is but just to a gallant officer to 
mention • that though, in the Blue Books, Sir John 
Grey — the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay 
Army, and nominally a member of Lord Falkland's 
Government — is represented as having* "concurred" 
in the Minutes of the Council, such was not the case. 
Mr. Willoughby, in his evidence before the Commons' 
Committee on Indian Affairs, appointed in 1851, ex- 
plained most satisfactorily that the real object in 
giving* a seat in Council to the Commander-in-Chief 
is, ndt to secure the benefit of his advice, but to 
afford a pretext for increasing his already vast emolu- 
ments ; that the Commander-in-Chief appends his 
signature as a mere matter of form to documents of 
which he cannot possibly have the slightest knowledge. 
In this way, Sir J ohn Grey's signature was obtained 
to several a Minutes " condemnatory of Outram. But 
when he became aware that Outram's dismissal had 
been resolved on, he took especial care to record his 
ignorance of the grounds on which this measure was 
sought to be justified ; and he reminded his colleagues 
that he had taken no part in their discussions. 

sad and long-established evils. Hardly, if at all less, do they 
owe gratitude to Mr. Anstey, to whose " irregular energies" the 
publication of the Baroda papers is exclusively due — and in spite 
of an act of discourtesy and indiscretion on the part of Colonel 
Outram himself. 



London : Printed by Stewart and Murray, Old Bailey. 



